 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





VUI.  04, /vu. /
january  I, 1988


C0f7tefXs                                                                   lanuary I, 1988

Meditation  -  lames D. Slopsema
Cod's Wisdom In leading His Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . <. . . . . . . .I46
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I49    ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly  during  June, July,
From  /-/o/y Writ  - George  C. Lubbers                                                              and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                                     lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
Exegetical Sketches on Micah 6:18 (I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I49                   at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                                     EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
                                                                                                     Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
The Day of Shadows  -  ]ohn A. Heys                                                                  DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                     Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
Assurance For A Virtuous Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I52                    Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                                     Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
In His Fear - Arie den Hartog                                                                        Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev.  J.  Korter-
                                                                                                     ing, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
Whatsqever Ye Do, Do It Heartily As To The lord . . . . . . . . . . . .I55                           Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Cise I. Van
                                                                                                     Baren,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
Question Box  - Cornelius  Hank0                                                                     EDITORIAL OFFICE
                                                                                                     Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
Some Questions About liturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I57                4975  lvanrest  Ave., S.W.
                                                                                                     Crandville,  Michigan 49418
Taking Heed To The Doctrine  - Ronald H. Hanko                                                       CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                     Mr. Ben Wigger
The Two Natures Of Christ: The Deity of Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I59                        6597  - 40th Ave.
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BookReview.........................................166                                               relative to the contents should be sent to the
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                                                    Pharaoh had let the people go,                   Mr. H.  Vander  Wal, Bus. Mgr.
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James D. Slopsema is pastor of Hope                                                                  Office.
                                                                                                     16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm
Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,                 land of promise. He did not lead                 microfiche, and article copies are available
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146  / The Standard Bearer


to Canaan. That would have               To that higher, heavenly Ca-         world of the ungodly. They do
ended in disaster. God led His         naan God leads all those who are       not possess the heavenly Canaan
people rather in a most indirect,      the true seed of Abraham.              as the Canaanites did the earthly
roundabout way that would take           The true seed of the covenant        Canaan in the Old Testament.
years to travel. But this was          are the elect of every age. In the     Yet they do stand over against us
necessary to ensure Israel's           Old Testament this seed was            and oppose us as we travel to Ca-
possession of the land of promise.     found almost exclusively among         naan. They seek to lead us far
  How utterly foolish and un-          the natural descendants of             away from God, far into the
necessary this must all have ap-       Abraham. In the New Testament          paths of sin so that we never
peared to Israel. Yet, how in-         this seed is found in every tribe,     reach the heavenly Canaan.
finitely wise is the Lord our God.     tongue, and nation under                 Also in this new year we can
  God is still leading His church      heaven. They can be identified         expect the attacks of the powers
to Canaan. And He still is leading     by the faith God has given them        of darkness. We and our children
her in a most indirect, round-         in Jesus Christ.                       will be tempted in thousands of
about way that often appears un-         To the heavenly Canaan God           different ways this year to for-
necessary and even, perhaps,           leads all the true seed of the         sake the Lord our God and to
somewhat foolish. Were we in           covenant. Our present life as          walk in darkness. These tempta-
the lead, we would, no doubt,          believers is really a spiritual        tions will be very deceptive and
take the most direct path. But         journey. We have been delivered        powerful.
then we would never reach Ca-          from the spiritual slavery of sin.       As so we must fight. We must
naan's shores.                         God is leading us to Canaan.           fight to overcome the alluring
  How thankful we can be that          Israel's journey from Egypt to Ca-     temptations of the world. We
God in His wisdom is leading us.       naan was merely a type and pic-        must fight to remain faithful to
  And He will be leading us in         ture of this higher, spiritual         the Lord our God. We must fight
this new year.                         journey.                               to keep our feet on the path of
  He will be leading us in His           To the heavenly Canaan the           righteousness, which alone will
wisdom to Canaan.                      Lord our God will also be leading      lead us to Canaan's shores.
         * * * * *                     us in this new year.                     We must fight again also in
  Israel had been slaves in Egypt                  * * * * *                  this new year, even as we have
for 400 years.                           To enter into Canaan, God's          fought in years gone by.
  But God had not forgotten His        covenant people must fight and                      * * * * *
covenant with Abraham. He had          overcome their enemies.                  As God's people face their
promised to Abraham and his              This certainly was true with         enemies on the way to Canaan,
seed the land of Canaan. In faith-     respect to the people of Israel in     the victory is assured.
fulness to His covenant God had        the Old Testament. The land of           Certainly Israel's victory over
delivered Israel from their            promise was inhabited by the Ca-       the Canaanites was assured.
slavery. And now He was bring-         naanites. For Israel to possess the      Israel, of course, could not
ing Israel to the promised land        land required that the Canaanites      overcome the Canaanites in her
where He would live with them          be destroyed in battle. Yes, God       own strength. She `had been a
and shower them with all His           would lead Israel in battle and        slave nation for the past 400
covenant blessings.                    would give them the victory; for       years. She had no military
  This is a picture of the work of     He had promised them the land          strength of her own.
God in every age.                      of Canaan. But to gain the land,         Israel could overcome her
  Both Abraham and Israel un-          Israel must fight and overcome.        enemies only in the strength of
derstood'full well that the earthly      In like manner the church of         the Lord. The Lord must lead her
Canaan which God promised              every age can enter into the           into battle. The Lord must equip
them was not the final fulfillment     heavenly Canaan only after she         and strengthen her. The Lord
of God's covenant promises. The        has fought and overcome the            must destroy the enemy with His
earthly Canaan was only a pic-         enemy.                                 great wonders of grace.
ture of the heavenly Canaan,             The great enemy of the church          And this is what the Lord had
where Abraham and his seed             is the power of darkness, the          promised Israel. Had He not for
would one day dwell with God in        devil and his host along with the      the sake of Israel just destroyed
the perfection of His covenant.                                               the world power of the day with
And the true spiritual seed in                                                ten terrible plagues?
Israel looked in hope for this bet-                                             Victory over the enemy, there-
ter Canaan.                                                                   fore, was a matter of faith. All

                                                                                              The Standard Bearer  I 147


Israel had to do was to cling by       Sea and travel through the terri-       His providential leading may at
faith to the Lord's promise of vic-    ble wilderness of Sinai.              times puzzle us. Were we in
tory. By faith in God's promise           God did this "lest peradventure    charge of the course of our life,
she would have the courage to          the people repent when they see       our wisdom would often dictate
engage the enemy in battle. By         war, and they return to Egypt."       another direction.
faith in God she would be                 Had the Lord led Israel to Ca-       However, the Lord is leading
strengthened to fight valiantly.       naan on the most direct route,        us with a wisdom that is infinitely
By faith she would overcome.           Israel would most certainly have      greater than ours. In His great
   In like manner is the victory       had to defend herself against the     wisdom He controls the course
also ours over the powers of           Philistines.                          and circumstances of our life so
darkness.                                But Israel's faith was not          that we are never overcome by
   Our victory over the devil and      strong enough at this time to         the enemy. He brings us again
his hosts is assured in Jesus          confront and overcome the             and again into battle with the
Christ. Jesus has secured our in-      Philistines.                          powers of darkness. We are
' heritance in the heavenly Canaan       The Philistines were a very         tempted on every hand. But the
through His suffering and death        warlike people. Even the great        Lord will never allow us to be
at the cross. And He has also          power of Egypt had not been           tempted above what we are able.
promised to lead us to our inheri-     able to bring the Philistines         In all the temptations of life, God
tance, in the power of the cross.      under control. Should Israel face     always provide a way of escape.
The powers of darkness may             the warlike Philistines at this       Also, through the trials and temp-
strive to keep denying us what is      time in her history, she would        tations into which the Lord leads
ours in Jesus Christ. But Christ       have in weakness of faith             us now, He is strengthening our
will lead us in battle against our     cowered in fear. She would have       faith for greater battles to come.
foes. He will preserve us in the       changed her mind about entering         But always God is leading us
face of every temptation. He will      Canaan and would have fled            infallibly to the heavenly Canaan
lead us in the way of righteous-       back to Egypt to her slavery.         where His covenant with us and
ness.                                    And so the Lord led Israel the      all of Abraham's seed will be
   Victory over our spiritual          roundabout way through the            perfected.
enemies therefore is merely a          great wilderness. In the wilder-        In this way He will also lead us
matter of faith. Clinging to Jesus     ness He would place Israel in         again in this new year!
Christ by faith we receive the         situations that would not over-         Let us commit our way unto
power of the cross to triumph          come her in her weakness of           the Lord! 0
over our enemies. By faith in          faith. Through many trials and af-
Jesus Christ we go from victory        flictions and over many years, He
to victory. We need not fear the       would slowly strengthen her in
battle before us. All is safe and      her faith, so that eventually she      The Standard
secure in Jesus.                       could face the inhabitants of the
   Also in this new year we can        land of Canaan and overcome           Bearer makes
expect to march from victory to        them in the Lord.
victory by faith in our Lord.            In like manner does the Lord        a thoughtful
             * * * * *                 also lead us.
   God led Israel to Canaan the          Our faith is not strong enough      gift for the
roundabout way.                        to withstand every trial and
   The shortest way to Canaan          temptation. There are certain
was in a northeasterly direction       situations and circumstances that     sick & shut-in.
from Egypt through the land of         are too great for us, and would
the Philistines. This was about a      overwhelm us. There are battles
hundred-mile journey that would        for which we are not yet ready,
have brought Israel to the             which at this point would mean
borders of Canaan in a matter of       horrible defeat.
weeks. But God led Israel in a           And so the Lord is very careful
southeasterly, direction through       as He leads us to the heavenly
the wilderness of the Red Sea, re-     Canaan.
quiring Israel to cross the Red



148  I The Standard Bearer


                                           Editor's Notes

                                             Standard Bearer Recordings. If I remember correctly, this has been
                                           mentioned in our News column some time ago. However, recently I had
                                           occasion to follow up on it and to obtain further information. The
                                           Evangelism Society of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church makes
                                           available cassette recordings of The Standard Bearer for the blind and
                                           those who have poor eyesight. These recordings are free, and no
                                           postage is necessary. If you are among those who could benefit from
                                           this service, send your request to: Mr. Ken Rietema, P.O. Box 8343,
                                           Grand Rapids, MI 49508. Or telephone: 616/455-2791.
                                                                         * * * * *
                                             Children's Treasures. The Hope Male Quartet (Hope P.R.C. of Walker,
                                           Michigan) has filled a need expressed by more than one family for a
                                           cassette recording of good children's songs. The quartet (Messrs. John N.
                                           Dykstra, Gerald Kuiper, Mike Lotterman, and Roger King, with Bonnie
                                           Kuiper at the organ) sings a well-chosen series of children's songs. This
                                           is a quality tape, with the words so plainly enunciated that your
                                           children can readily sing along with the recordings. The recording in-
                                           cludes some songs for little children, some hymns, and some psalms. It
                                           can be obtained for $5.00 from Reformed Book Outlet, 3505 Kelly, Hud-
                                           sonville, MI 49426. 0                                                     HCH





                                           Exegetical Sketches on
From Holy  Writ
George C. Lubbers                          Micah  6:143 (1)

                                               This portion of the prophecy is    which is given by inspiration of
                                            very "profitable for reproof, for     God. The prophet Micah belongs
                                            doctrine, for correction, for in-     to the holy men of God who
                                            struction in righteousness, that      spoke as they were moved by
                                            the man of God may be perfect,        the Holy Ghost. Indeed, it is the
                                            thoroughly furnished unto every       more sure word of prophecy
                                            good work!" For it is indeed a        whereunto we do well to take
George C Lubbers is a minister emeritus     part of the sacred Scripture,         heed, as unto a light that shines
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  I 149


in a dark place, until the day          is such that all creation is called    weary of his doings. Wherein has
dawn and the day-star arise in          to stand at attention and to           the LORD proved Himself un-
our hearts (II Tim. 3:16, 17; II        witness. Yea, the very mountains       faithful to His promises? Was the
Pet.  1:19-21).                         and hills must take heed; they         word of God ever such that he
   We do well to keep this in           must hear the LORD'S contro-           spoke and that he did not per-
mind as our guiding star.               versy with his people, Israel!         form it? Is God a man that He
   We must be as the scribe, who,         2. We should also observe            should lie? Should we consider it
instructed unto the kingdom of          carefully that in "controversy" it     unfair of God to thus confront
heaven, is as a householder, who        is not Israel that pleads her cause    Israel and/or us, too? Verily,
brings forth out of his treasure        and case in court, but that it is      here every mouth is stopped. All
things new and old (Matt. 13:52).       the LORD, who comes down               Israel stands guilty and speech-
   Our purpose in writing these         from his place, who comes and          less before a righteous and just
exegetical studies is to avoid a        treads the high places of the          God!
lengthy series. These studies,          earth. This case in court really is       The LORD gives His bill of par-
which I prepare for publication,        the question: whether the              ticulars. Listen to what he says in
no longer appear in semi-               LORD'S righteousness is based on       verse 4, "For I brought thee up
monthly installments so that they       Israel's works of merit, or            out of the land of Egypt, and
can be followed with any degree         whether God's righteousness is         redeemed thee out of the house
of reading continuity. Hence, our       solely sovereign love and grace        of servants: and I sent before
concerted effort to write short         to Israel. This will become evi-       thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam."
series of articles.                     dent in the verses 3-5 of this           This is the first point in the
   This series is composed of four      Chapter.                               LORD'S controversy. There are
installments.                                       * * * * *                  two kinds of people in Israel in
             *  *  *  *  *                We read here:                        all ages. There are those who
   Let us notice the verses 1 and         "0 my people, what have I            tremble at God's word, and there
2 of Micah 6. We read, "Hear ye         done unto thee? And wherein            are those who harden their
now what the LORD saith; Arise,         have I wearied thee?' (verse 3).       hearts. Those who tremble at
contend thou before the moun-             What a challenging question          God's word, humble themselves
tains, and let the hills hear thy       we hear in this verse from the         before God and joyfully confess
voice. Hear ye, 0 mountains, the        mouth of the LORD! However, it         that He has never "wearied"
LORD'S controversy, and ye              is also a very loving and endear-      them at all. They remember the
strong foundations of the earth:        ing question, which is rooted in       Scriptures, which warn us as sons
for the Lord hath a controversy         the fact that God loved Jacob. Do      never to weary of the LORD'S
with his people, and he will plead      we not read in Deuteronomy             fatherly chastisements (Prov.
with Israel."                           l&15, 16: "Only the LORD had           3:ll; Heb. 12:5-13). There is
                                                                               nothing in all of the thoughts of
   Let us also give heed to these       delight in thy fathers to love         God's heart which is not for our
words of Jehovah. These are             them, and he chose their seed          peace and for our eternal salva-
words which are already echoed          after them, even you above all         tion.
in Micah 1:2-5. Please read these       people, as it is this day. Circum-       Let us look at the record as
verses from your own Bibles.            cise, therefore, the foreskin of       God relates it.
   We should notice the following       your heart and be no more stiff-         Notice three things which God
elements in these verses.               necked".                               enumerates in his court.
   1. That the prophet speaks             What has the LORD done to              First, God relates his great
here about the LORD and his             Israel which was not purely sav-       historic act of love to Israel.
words as being the mouth-piece          ing and forgiving love? Come,          Israel possessed a great promise
of God. He is truly a prophet. He       now, Israel,,for it is the golden      of God as recorded in Genesis
is, as it were, the official in the     opportunity to testify, that is, to    15:13, 14. This word of promise
court of God, summoning Israel          marshal all your evidences             was that He would deliver Israel
to have their day in court with         against the LORD! Step forward,        after four hundred years of bond-
the Lord. And we should notice          be very truthful, and mention just     age as strangers and pilgrims in
that Israel cannot fail to heed this    one deed of God in all of Israel's     the land of Egypt. It was em-
summons with impunity. To do            history, which will indicate that      phatically in Egypt that God
so will be accounted contempt of        God gives reason for us to be          loved Israel with a great and
court, disobedience to the Most                                                redeeming love. He was rich in
High God. We should observe                                                    mercy when he heard the groan-
that the arena of the Lord's court

750  I The Standard Bearer


 ing of His people in the hot brick         Without this great merciful          Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his
 kiln. We read, "And God looked           salvation the Decalogue petrifies      servants, and to all his land, and
 upon the children of Israel and          into a mere legal code. However,       in all the mighty hand, and in the
 had respect unto them." Yes, He          now the ten precepts of the law        great terror which Moses shewed
 knew them in loving and faithful         breathe redemptive mercy. Small        in the sight of all Israel."
 fatherly care. He remembered his         wonder that, when the very               Indeed Moses is worthy of
 covenant with Abraham, with              essence of Israel's relation to God    special mention in court.
 Isaac, and with Jacob.                   is a question in court, God              Great also was Aaron, who
    God's loving care stands up in        rehearses the truth of the great       served as Moses prophet. He later
 court. Let all the hills and moun-       covenant of grace. Here we have        bore the breast-plate, and he
 tains give heed. Where are these         the confession pressed from our        entered into the most holy place
 accusers now who had the anx-            hearts and lips, "Thou wilt per-       once each year, not without
 ious question: hath God forgotten        form the truth to Jacob, and the       blood. And his priesthood, called
 to be kind? To be sure, the              mercy to Israel, which thou hast       the priesthood after the order of
 unbelieving Israel never ceased          sworn unto our fathers from the        Aaron, served till the high priest,
 to murmur, even from the day             days of old" (Micah 7:20).             the king-priest after the order of
 that God sent Moses to them as             The book of Micah does not           Melchizedek came in Jesus.
 their deliverer and leader. But let      end with the solemn word                 Two great servants in the an-
 God be true and every man a              "Amen". However, in effect the         nals of Israel, buried outside of
 liar. The true Israel of God con-        prophet here swears by the God         the land of Canaan on mount
 fess in their darkest hour with          of Abraham and his seed! And           Hor and Nebo respectively.
 Malachi 3:6 "it is of the LORD'S         this God is "Amen" in Jesus            These were not to be forgotten
 mercies that we are not con-             Christ.                                as God's loving protectors of
 sumed. Jeremiah sings in his               Finally, we must not forget the      Israel, and who pronounced the
 deepest grief over Jerusalem             important reminder in this con-        blessing of God upon Israel
 ". . . great is thy faithfulness, the    troversy of God with his people,       ". . . the Lord make his face to
 LORD is my portion, saith my             that He adds, "And I sent before       shine upon thee and give thee
 soul; therefore will I hope in           thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam"          peace" (Numbers 6:24-26).
 him" (Lam. 3:24).                        (Verse 4b.)                              And then, never to be for-
   Secondly, He points out in His           This brief reminder shews that       gotten, Miriam. Yes, she sinned,
 controversy with His people His          outstretched arms of the LORD          she became a smitten leper. But
 great work of salvation. We read         over Israel in sending them these      she was cleansed. From her sanc-
 in verse 4, "I redeemed thee out         two brothers and their sister as       tified lips we hear the refrain.
" of the house of servants."              ministers for joy and safety.          "The horse and his rider hath he
   In this act of delivering Israel       Through the service of these           cast, drowned in the sea." Having
 out of the house of servants, God        earthen vessels, God shewed that       died, she, too, yet speaks.
 proved Himself to be their Goel.         the excellency of the power and          A worthy threefold servant of
 It is true the verb here in verse 4      salvation was only of the LORD.        the Most High.
 for "redeemer" is not the term           Not one Israelite could base his         This is God's faithfulness. Cl
 Goel, yet it is a Hebrew term            hope and trust on the arm of
 which also refers to the redemp-         flesh, but only on God's mighty
 tion of Israel by God's gracious,        outstretched arm over them, us-
 powerful, and saving hand. We            ing weakest means to fulfill his
 have but to read the Hebrew text         purpose! Thus was the glory of
 in Psalms 25:22; 26:ll; 31:5; 49:7       the Lord enhanced.
 and several other passages, that           First of all, a word about
 this redemption refers to the            Moses, the man of God. Surely,
 LORD'S bringing forth of Israel          he was no common prophet. Of
 because He saw the blood of the          him the sacred record has, in
 slain sacrifice on the doorposts of      Deuteronomy 34:10-12 an          .
 Israel's houses.                         epitaph on his unknown grave,
   God never wants his people to          "And there arose not a prophet
 forget this great salvation under        since in Israel, who the LORD
 the blood of the passover Lamb!          knew face to face, in all the signs
                                          and wonders, which the LORD
                                          sent him to do in the land of


                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer  1157


  The Day                                 Assurance For A
 of Shadows
John A. Heys                              Virtuous Woman

   The first time that Ruth met           instead was making a very hum-         love with Boaz - although it
Boaz she made a striking and              ble confession. She said that she      may be conceded that such a
significant confession. Boaz had          was less than the Jewish women         thing was not at all impossible -
told her not to glean in another          who were also reaping that             yet there is nothing that
field of some other Israelite; that       which the gleaners had dropped.        undeniably speaks of such a
he had charged his young men              She did not then hesitate to tell      fleshly love for this older, very
not to touch her; and that she            Boaz that she was not an Israelite     rich man, who had befriended
might drink of the water which            according to her flesh. She did        her so much. Naomi had to tell
his servants had drawn for them-          this because it simply amazed her      her to wash herself, anoint her-
selves. Then Ruth not only con-           that he had dealt so favourably        self with a sweet-smelling per-
fessed that she was a stranger un-        with her. And this humble con-         fume, and put on her most attrac-
to him but also that she was "not         fession was also an expression of      tive raiment, and go to Boaz that
like unto one of thy hand-                thankfulness. For to thank one is      way. She did not do this because
maidens." Doing this she con-             to say that this one has done a        her heart called for it. She did
fessed being a Moabitess and a            good deed. An Israelite had dealt      not ask Naomi whether it was
stranger in that sense. In other          well with her, even though she         wise to do so and whether she
words she confessed being an              was a Moabitess.                       might go to him that way. The
outsider, a foreigner as far as her         Many days later, through the         idea of it came from Naomi.
flesh was concerned. Doing this           instruction of Naomi, she ap-            This does not mean that Ruth
she was in no way boasting, but           proaches this Boaz and asks him        was not elated at the thought
                                          to marry her. What a change!           that she could again be married,
                                          She had thanked him for a rich         and now married to this kind
                                          measure of blessings, and had          man. The idea of having a hus-
                                          told him that she did not deserve      band, bringing forth a child who
                                          such kind treatment. She was a         could inherit the heritage of
                                          very honest woman. And now             Elimelech, did not go against her
                                          this same woman comes and asks         flesh. And Naomi must have told
                                          for a tremendously great bless-        her of the ordinance of God that
                                          ing. To use the words of Naomi,        a kinsman should marry a widow
                                          it was to bring her rest and cause     and strive to raise up seed. It is
                                          all things to be well with her. She    not impossible that Naomi even
                                          came to propqse to him that he         told the story of Genesis 38, how
                                          take her as his wife. She reminds      God killed Onan because he
                                          him of the fact that he is a near      refused to take Tamar as his wife
                                          kinsman who can redeem the             and raise up seed for his brother,
                                          land of Elimelech for Naomi, and       who had died and left Tamar as a
                                          for her as the former wife of          widow. Naomi had told Ruth,
                                          Mahlon.                                when she had informed her
                                            Although there is nothing in         mother-in-law that it was Boaz
                                          the whole book of Ruth that            who dealt so kindly with her and
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in    reveals that she had fallen in         gave her such an abundance of
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

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food, that Boaz was near of kin.        those dress garments in place of      ly a serious matter because Boaz
And Ruth certainly had a soft           her working clothes expose            was not the nearest of kin.
spot in her heart for him. She          herself more clearly and quickly        Boaz had a very good opinion
had very pleasant thoughts con-         than in those working clothes         of Ruth. In his eyes she was no
cerning him. `She would surely          wherein she and others had been       sexual pervert. He said to her,
consider it a blessing to have a        seen so many days before this         "Blessed be thou of the Lord, my
man like that as her husband, if        time? Was this something im-          daughter, for thou hast showed
he would fulfill her request that       moral that Naomi ordered her to       more kindness in the latter end
Naomi gave her to present to            perform? Was it not deceitful to      than at the beginning, inasmuch
him. She certainly had no objec-        wait until he had drunk and           as thou followest not young men,
tion to the thought of being his        eaten and his heart was merry         whether poor or rich." He did
wife. To no degree and in no            before proposing to him? Was it       not to the slightest degree accuse
way did she present before              because Naomi knew of this            her of immorality. In the next
Naomi any dislike of the idea.          nearer of kin, and wanted the         verse he even calls her a virtuous
She did not speak one word of           new husband to be Boaz?               woman.
objection, or with her face               As far as the immoral act is          That Boaz called her his
manifest dislike of the idea. In        concerned, we may state that this     daughter could indicate a great
fact Scripture tells us that to         was not a sinful act of violating     age difference between them. But
Naomi she said, "All that thou          the seventh commandment that          the Hebrew word here is often
sayest unto me I will do." And          Naomi ordered Ruth to commit.         used and translated as young
that word all says a great deal.        Widows in that day had a God-         woman. Besides, Ruth had
The rest and well-being of which        given right to ask the nearest of     reminded him that he was near
Naomi spoke pleased her, and            kin to marry them and raise up        of kin, a blood relative to her
seemed very wonderful and               seed for their husbands who died.     dead husband. Therefore to call
valuable.                               That incident in Genesis 38, to       her daughter, that is, a relative,
   Then we read, "And she went          which we already referred, in-        was not out of place. And here
down unto the floor, and did ac-        dicates clearly that God de-          again, calling her his daughter  j
cording to all that her mother-in-      manded it. If that nearest of kin     clearly reveals that Boaz was not
law bade her." Note once again          did not do what was his calling,      at all ashamed at what she had
the word all. It is also interesting    the widow might certainly ap-         done there in the threshingfloor,
to read that all this is what her       proach him, remind him of it,         lying down next to him, remov-
mother-in-law bade her. It all          and ask him to keep that or-          ing the covering over his feet,
originated with Naomi. And what         dinance of God, even reminding        and asking him to spread his
-an obedient daughter-in-law this       him of what happened to Onan.         skirt over her. Informing Ruth of
was! She was according to the             Because Ruth was not a Jew          one closer to her husband reveals
flesh, and therefore outwardly, a       outwardly, there could be strong      that Boaz is not surprised that
,Moabitess.  But inwardly and ac-       opposition by those in that region    she came to him to request mar-
cording to her soul she was a           who snubbed Ruth and left her         riage and the raising up of seed
Jewess in the spiritual sense of        and Naomi to go hungry, and           for Mahlon and Elimelech. He is
the word. She was a true child of       avoided them. They could ap-          quite aware of the fact that Ruth
God who loved God and showed            proach Boaz and remind him of         was ignorant of this nearer kins-
this by keeping His fifth com-          God's law that no Israelite might     man. And there is nothing to in-
mandment. She honoured her              marry a Moabite. Not seeing           dicate that Boaz knew that
father and mother. She honoured         Ruth as a Jew inwardly (Romans        Naomi had ordered Ruth to do all
her mother-in-law by doing her          2:28, 29) they, who were only         this. No, she was a virtuous
bidding. She honoured her father-       Jews outwardly, would do all          woman, and came to him for a
in-law, though he were dead, by         that they could to prevent this       good cause. In fact it all showed
seeking to keep his name in the         marriage and brand it as evil.        Boaz more clearly that she was a
promised land, by bringing forth        Ruth would be presented to Boaz       Jew inwardly, one interested in
seed that would inherit his land.       as a whore, and one after his         the things in the promised land,
  .There are several questions          money. Boaz had his reason also       one interested in God's or-
however, that do arise. Why             for telling Ruth to leave before      dinances, with her back turned
must she go in the darkness of          the sun arose, so that this would
the night? Would she not by that        not happen, and it be reported
sweet smelling ointment and             that a woman came into the
                                        threshingfloor. This was especial-


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completely upon Chemosh, the            And he promised Ruth that if the          Naomi is also confident, after
idol of the Moabites. She was a         nearest kinsman would not marry         Ruth explained to her all that
citizen of the Kingdom of               her, he most surely would do so.        Boaz had said, that marriage for
Heaven, of which that land of Ca-       Marriage was definitely ahead for       Ruth was sure. She said, "Sit still,
naan was a type and shadow.             her. With that hope he sent her         my daughter, until thou know
She was interested in having a          home.                                   how the matter will fall; for the
name and a place in God's -               Boaz did not know that their          man will not be in rest, until he
Jehovah's - kingdom.                    seed would bring forth David and        have finished the thing this day."
   That Boaz was willing to             the Christ of God. He was not           Ruth very plainly now is eager to
marry her and considered it a           trying to take away from the            marry Boaz, and not this man
blessing cannot be denied. He did       nearer kinsmen the honor of hav-        about whom she knows nothing
not tell her of this nearer             ing Christ born in the line of his      more than that he is the nearest
kinsman in order to get out of          descendants. Boaz was interested        of kin to her dead husband. And
the situation, and from marrying        in serving God and in keeping           here is the first hint that we have
her. Unequivocally he told her          His ordinances. That really is          in the whole story of Ruth that
that in the morning he would            what counts. And that is what           she manifested some agitation
contact this nearest of kin. He         lies ahead for every child of God       about remarriage. She is told to
was not going to think it over for      when Christ does return to this         sit still, to be patient and to wait
a few days or weeks, hoping that        earth. Everlasting life is far more     and see what God has in store for
she would change her mind,              than everlasting existence. Life is     her.
since a younger kinsman could           activity. And everlasting life is an      The same truth is manifest
fulfill this task. He did not sug-      endless activity of serving God in      here as far as Naomi is con-
gest to her that she go and ask         a perfect love. Much of the             cerned. She expresses no dis-
this unnamed kinsman. In fact,          preaching today about ever-             appointment that Boaz did not
we do not even read here in this        lasting life is merely an escape        take Ruth. She commits it all to
book of Ruth that he even told          from the curse and an endless           God, and would not complain if
her who this nearest of kin was.        "good time" that even the devil,        that nearest of kin would take
Plainly this man whom Boaz had          the fallen angels, and the              Ruth and deny Boaz this
in mind was a Jew outwardly,            unbelievers would like to have.         privilege. A great change has
but not inwardly. And Boaz              No, everlasting life is everlasting     been wrought by God's grace also
assures Ruth that he will marry         activity of serving God in love.        in Naomi. She who left the type
her, if this nearest of kin refuses.    And both Ruth and Boaz were in-         and shadow of the kingdom of
Being a Jew inwardly as well as         terested in doing that in this life.    heaven for bread, not putting her
outwardly, Boaz wants to do             They were interested in more            trust in God to take care of His
what is right in God's sight. He        than self. They were interested in      people, now having all her hard-
will keep God's ordinance; and in       God's church and in marrying            ships and bereavements applied
no uncertain terms he tells Ruth        and seeking children for the            to her heart by God's grace and
that He will do that. And with          growth and well-being of that           Spirit, commits it all to Him, and
that he sends her home to               church.                                 instructs Ruth to sit still and wait
Naomi. Yes, he even sends her             This explains why Boaz tells          and see what God has in store for
home with the gift of six               Ruth not to be afraid. Literally he     her. Ruth is divinely assured of
measures of barley.                     said, "And now, my daughter,            being a Jew inwardly and of hav-
  What is more, Boaz promises           fear not; I will do to thee all that    ing a definite place in God's
Ruth that he will take care of the      thou requirest: for all the city of     kingdom. Naomi has that same
matter. He wanted to serve God          my people know that thou art a          assurance about Ruth and about
and wanted God's ordinance              virtuous woman." He tells her           God's grace keeping her
kept. He did think highly of Ruth       that marriage is sure, even             husband's name in the promised
as a believer and was sure that         though he cannot at the moment          land. 0
she would make a devout,                promise that he will be the one
spiritual wife. If was far more         to marry her.
than love of the flesh that moved
him. It was love unto God and
love for the church of God, of
which Elimelechwas a member.



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                                          Whatsoever Ye Do,
                                          Do  It Heartily
 In His Fear                              As To 
Arie den Ha-tog                                         The Lord

   This is the exhortation ad-            to Christian servants, or rather,       Never does the word of God ex-
dressed by the inspired apostle           Christian slaves. Servants of the       hort such a slave to form a union
Paul to servants in Colossians            world would never follow such a         together with his fellow slaves
3:23. This exhortation is part of a       command. It is spiritually im-          and rise up in rebellion against
list of such commands and prac-           possible for them. The man of           their master. Such an exhortation
tical injunctions which Paul ad-          the world does all things for           is not found in any of the Scrip-
dresses to the saints of God. Paul        himself and for the glory and           tures. Rather these slaves were to
is speaking to those who have             praise of men. The Christian is         do all things heartily as unto the
been risen with Christ and those          principally and spiritually dif-        Lord. Many of the common peo-
whom he exhorts, therefore, to            ferent. That difference is the fruit    ple of God were in this situation.
seek the things above, where              of the mighty and wonderful             Therefore almost all the letters of
Christ sitteth on the right hand of       operation of the Spirit of God in-      the apostles contain similar ex-
God, and not the things of this           him. It is striking that Paul ad-       hortations.
earth. Paul is speaking therefore         dresses slaves in this manner. In         If we keep the above back-
                                          the days of the apostle, many           ground in mind, we can see how
                                          members of the church were              forceful Paul's exhortation is.
                                          slaves. Much of the business and        Paul is addressing the common
                                          many of the farms of that day           laborer. He is speaking concern-
                                          were in the hands of rich and           ing the manner in which the
                                          powerful lords who owned a              common laborer must conduct
                                          great number of slaves. Slaves          himself in his daily occupation. It
                                          were the possessions of their           is legitimate, however, also to ap-
                                          masters. They were often bought         ply this exhortation to the whole
                                          and sold on the market place.           of our life here on earth as Chris-
                                          The life of a slave was not easy.       tians.`Paul says; "WHATSOEVER
                                          Many masters were hard and              YE DO, do it heartily as to the
                                          cruel, and drove their slaves with      Lord." That is all-comprehensive.
                                          threatenings and with the whip.         Nothing may be excluded from
                                          Often the work which the slave          this exhortation.
                                          had to do was hard. It was gruel-         Implied in the above exhorta-
                                          ing drudgery. The slave could           tion is the truth that Jesus is Lord
                                          not, as employees today, change         over all. As the Son of God, He is
                                          jobs and employers if he found          the Lord of lords and the King of
                                          his situation miserable and un-         kings. He is sovereign over all.
                                          just. He simply had to continue in      He created all things and He
Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Prot-    the situation in which he was in        rules over all things. The earth
estant Reformed Church of Randolph,       the providence of the Lord.
Wisconsin.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  / 155


                                                                                           -1
and all that it contains belongs to    Lord and His commandments as          purpose of the student in school
Him. He has redeemed us                we go about our daily occupa-         in all of his studies.
through His sacrifice on the           tion. We must often think of Him        There is something wonderful
cross. Therefore we are not our        and of His great salvation. We        about this. The idea of heartily
own. We belong to Him. He is           must live in the consciousness of     includes also joyfulness. The
our Lord. All that we are and all      the fact that the Lord is watching    slave in Paul's day could do his
that we have belongs to Him; our       over us. He sees all that we do.      work joyfully even though it was
homes, our families, all our earth-    Never for a moment can we             hard drudgery, even though he
ly possessions. It is by His provi-    escape His all-seeing eye and all-    had to listen to the threatenings
dence that we have our daily           knowing care and judgment over        of his ungodly master, and often
occupation. The Lord has com-          us. Again and again we must be        bear the cruel and unjust abuse
manded us to serve Him. He is          reminded of the Lord. Therefore       that was laid upon him. So today
our holy and righteous Lord.           the Lord in His good and wise         some of our work is in itself
Therefore we must serve Him            providence has given to us the        hard. Some of it is drudgery all
with fear and trembling.               Lord's Day at the beginning of        by itself. It taxes all of our
   Whatsoever we do we must            each week. We need the special        energies so that we become
serve Him. Our great ambition          day which is consecrated unto         weary. Often we as Christians
and purpose in life must be to do      Him in order that we might be         must in our daily occupation suf-
His will and to bring glory unto       reminded that all our days and        fer the injustice of wicked men.
His name. All else must be sub-        all our life must be consecrated      Sometimes we have to suffer
servient to this. We must be will-     unto Him. It is good practice for     great loss because of our desire
ing even to suffer loss and to en-     the Christian, therefore, also to     to abide by the principles of the
dure persecution for this purpose.     begin and end each day with a         Word of God. In it all the joy of
As children of God, our joy and        period of prayer and the study of     our life is that we belong to the
delight must be in serving the         God's word. He does that in           Lord. He has redeemed us. The
Lord. We love God because He           order to help him to remember         purpose of our life is that we
first loved us, and shed His love      that all his day and all the ac-      serve Him. There is no greater
abroad in our hearts. We seek          tivities that belong to it must be    joy and purpose for our life.
His favor and blessing as the          done unto the Lord. It is not         Man's life without God, in all of
highest good. With great fear we       good enough for us merely to          his striving, is utter vanity. It
earnestly seek by all means to         have a brief time of worship at       profits him nothing at all in the
avoid doing those things which         the beginning of the day, and         end. He labors in the sweat of his
displease Him and bring dishonor       then go on for the rest of the day    face all the days of his life, only
to His holy name.                      without ever again thinking of        to return to the dust of the
   Therefore we are called to do       the Lord. The Lord must be in         ground. And after this life, the
all things heartily unto the Lord.     our consciousness, and guide our      ungodly man will stand before
There may be no division in our        every step throughout the day.        the judgment seat of God and be
life. In all things there must be      His word must judge and deter-        judged for all the things he has
singleness of purpose. We may          mine our every work, and how          done. But for the Christian all
not divide our life into sacred        we do it.                             this has been changed by the
and secular. We may not seek to          We must do all things HEARTI-       cross and resurrection of the
serve the Lord with fear on the        LY as unto the Lord. There must       Lord Jesus Christ. Having been
Lord's Day and in His house,           be in all our life a singleness of    delivered from both the condem-
while through the rest of the          purpose and desire, a zeal and        nation and slavery of sin we can
week we live for ourselves and         devotion to the Lord. Again this      now begin to serve the Lord.
seek the things of this world.         must be evident in our daily oc-        What a great calling! How far
There may be no such unholy in-        cupation. This. must be the great     short we fall of it every day of
consistency and hypocrisy in our       purpose of the farmer ploughing       our life. Daily we need to confess
life. There is within us because of    in the field and milking his cows.    our great sin and shortcoming.
our sinful nature a great tenden-      This must be the purpose of the
cy to divide our life. Especially      laborer in the factory, and the
hard it is to do our daily occupa-     business man in the office and on
tion unto the'Lord. Yet this is ac-    the road. This must be the pur-
cording to this exhortation our        pose of the mother in the home,
calling. We must remember the          as she does the daily chores of
                                       the housework and caring for the
                                       children. This must be the great

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Daily we need to pray for grace                By His grace we begin in all           the reward of His grace. Our dai-
to change and to turn again unto             our life to live unto Him. Living        ly occupation here on earth does
the Lord. Never may we imagine               unto the Lord, we suffer persecu-        not have its final goal and pur-
that we have already attained.               tion and hatred from the world.          pose in this life. We look for the
Constantly the Lord Himself has              Often our work is hard. We have          return of our Lord and Savior
to turn us away from the vanity              to toil day and night to make            Jesus Christ and the hope of the
of this world and from our own               enough money to feed our                 new heavens and earth. It is in
sinful self-centeredness. Each day           families, support the church, and        this hope also that we can and
we need to begin with the                    pay Christian school tuition. But        do all things heartily unto the
earnest prayer: "Lord help me to             the Christian who does all things        Lord. 0
do all things heartily unto thee."           heartily unto the Lord looks unto





                                             Some Questions
Qkstion Box
Cornelius Hanko                              About Liturgy

  One of our faithful readers asks           Reply                                    13:14, "The grace of our Lord
some questions about liturgy and               Obviously our reader, who is a         Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
liturgical practices.                        good listener, has more in mind          and the communion of the Holy
Question # 1                                 than might appear on the surface         Ghost, be with you all. Amen."
  When the invocation is spoken,             of his question. He seems to im-         You will notice that Paul includes
the minister addresses the con-              ply that when the congregation           the "you all."
gregation as "you", but at the               meets in public worship on Sun-            Secondly, this can well be
end of the service when the                  day as church institute, it is not       understood when we bear in
salutation is given, some                    all Israel that is called Israel. All    mind that when the minister ad-
ministers conclude with "you all".           are not necessarily believers in         dresses the congregation at the
Is the "you all" correct?                    Christ Jesus, elect from before          beginning of the service, he
                                             the foundations of the earth and         follows the practice of the
                                             redeemed by the blood of                 apostles in their epistles by call-
                                             Calvary. The carnal element is           ing them the "Beloved" in Christ
                                             likely still present, even though        Jesus. He also does that when he
                                             we do not recognize them.                calls them "Beloved Congrega-
                                               Therefore the question can             tion." Thus the Word is directed
                                             very well arise: Is it proper to say     to "the saints in Christ Jesus"
                                             "you all" in the final benediction,      (Phil. l:l), "the called of Jesus
                                             as if the carnal element is also in-     Christ, beloved of God' (Rom.
                                             cluded under that blessing?              1:6, 7), "faithful brethren" (Col.
                                               There are two things that              1:2), "church . . . which is in God
                                             should be considered here.               the Father and in the Lord Jesus
                                               First, that the invocation is          Christ" (I Thess. l:l), "Elect ac-
                                             taken, at least in part, from the        cording to the foreknowledge of
                                             epistles of the apostle Paul.
                                             Moreover, the salutation is also
                                             literally taken from the Scrip-
Cornelius Hanko is a minister emeritus in    tures, namely from II Corinthians
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                                        The Standard Bearer / 157


God the Father, through sanctifi-       This reader is not only a good          on/y Son." Is this an error, and
cation of the Spirit" (I Peter 1:2),    listener but is also very obser-        should this be corrected when we
and "to them that have obtained         vant. I have often wondered             publish a new Psalter?
like precious faith with us" (II        about this myself, and therefore        Reply
Peter 1:l). Therefore at the con-       have been a bit hesitant to use            It is interesting to note that the
clusion of the service the minister     this form of benediction.               term "God's only Son" does not,
pronounces God's blessing on the          The question is not so much           to the best of my knowledge, ap-
congregation as a part of the true      whether it is proper to use this        pear as such in the Scriptures.
church, the body of Christ, con-        form of benediction at the con-         Yet the Word of God is very em-
sisting of believers and their          clusion of the service. There is        phatic in declaring that all three
spiritual seed. As ambassador of        much to be said in favor of ex-         Persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Jesus Christ he wishes them the         pressing praise to God as a dox-        Ghost, are eternally and equally
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ          ology at the end of our worship         God. The Son is one with the
which is'bestowed upon them by          together. Some texts lend them-         Father and the Holy Spirit,
the love of God through the com-        selves to a sermon that necessari-      generated by the Father as "the
munion, or fellowship, of the Ho-       ly proclaims the wonders,               brightness of his glory, and the
ly Ghost.                               praises, and glories of our God.        express image of his person."
    The reason why I, and possibly      There can be times when we              (Heb 1:3) It also needs no proof
others, have left off the "all" is      marvel at the grace of the God of       among us that Jesus is the only
because this fundamental princi-        our salvation revealed to us in         begotten Son of the Father, in
ple, so clearly expressed in Scrip-     Scripture as a living reality in our    Whom God is, even as He is in
ture, is not always understood,         hearts, so that the congregation        God. (John 17:21)
and therefore the "all" could be        often gives expression to that in         The term "only begotten Son"
confusing.                              the manner in which the last            appears at least four times in the
Question  #2                            Psalter number is sung. I can well      Gospel that bears John's name
   This reader also makes the           remember one occasion when I            and once in his First _Epistle. It is
following inquiry. Some ministers       was in the audience and it could        obvious why John should employ
will occasionally use some              well be said that the rafters           the name "only begotten Son" in
passage in the salutation that is       rattled because of the fervent          his Gospel account, because his
taken directly from Scripture           response to the preaching of the        very purpose in writing this ac-
which is not a benediction upon         Word.                                   count was that "ye may believe
the congregation. He has in mind          But the question is: should a         that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
a passage taken from Jude,              minister in pronouncing a               of God; and that believing ye
verses 24, 25: "Now unto him            benediction of praise to God have       might have life through him."
that is able to keep you from fall-     his hands extended toward the           Hebrews 1:6 refers to this term
ing, and to present you faultless       congregation when this benedic-         when it states: ". . . when he
before the presence of his glory        tion is not extended as a blessing      bringeth in the first begotten into
with exceeding joy, to the only         to them, but rather as an expres-       the world . . ." And in Revelation
wise God our Savior, be glory           sion of praise?                         1:5 He is called "the first begot-
and majesty, dominion and                 Maybe the minister in this in-        ten from the dead."
power, both now and ever.               stance should extend his hands in         Although this term "only
Amen." His question is: Since this      such a way, as some do before           begotten" is employed in Scrip-
is not a benediction directed to        the congregational prayer, that         ture occasionally to refer to one
the congregation, should the            he expresses that the entire con-       who is an only son or an only
minister pronounce this benedic-        gregation is included in this ex-       daughter, (see Luke 7:12, 8:42,
tion with uplifted hands extended       pression of praise to God.              9:38, and Hebrews  11:17, where
toward the congregation?                  It is something worth thinking        this term appears in the Greek),
Reply                                   about.                                  this name takes on a very special
   The reader is assuming, and I        Question  #3                            meaning when it refers to the
think correctly so, that the              A final question from the same        Christ, the Son of God. It empha-
uplifted hands extended toward          reader: In our Apostolic Creed as       sizes that He is Mary's firstborn
the congregation are an expres-         we confess it in our worship ser-       (Luke 2:7), the firstborn among
sion of God's blessing upon the         vice on Sunday we say: "His only        many brethren (Rom. 8:29), the
church of Jesus Christ in the           begotten Son." In our Commu-
name of Christ Jesus Himself.           nion Form this same confession
                                        appears, but there as "his (Gods)


158  I  The Standard Bearer


firstborn of every creature (Col.       Communion Form correct in               nion Form our fathers quoted the
1:15), and the "firstborn from the      quoting the Apostle's Creed and         early Latin edition of the
dead." He always stands out             leaving out the word "begotten"?        Apostles' Creed. There can there-
uniquely as the first begotten of       This confronts us with the ques-        fore be no objection to the words
God. He is Gods beloved Son,            tion whether the early creeds           as they appear in our Commu-
the Son of the Highest, Who is          that are quoted here include the        nion Form.
eternally in the bosom of the           word "begotten" or not. It is in-          [Editor's note: The expression
Father (John 1:lS). Of Him John         teresting to note that one of the       in question in our Communion
declares: "In the beginning was         earliest Latin forms of the Creed       Form is either a printing error
the Word, and the Word was              (341) has the words "God's only         which has been perpetuated in
with God, and the Word was              Son". There is also a Greek form        subsequent editions of our Psalter
God . . . . And the Word was            of the Creed that was composed          or it is a mistranslation. In the
made flesh, and dwelt among us,         about the same time and has             original Dutch version of the
(and we beheld his glory, the           "God's only begotten Son." It ap-       Form - at least in those editions
glory as of the only begotten of        pears that the word "begotten"          which I have in my library - the
the Father) full of grace and truth     did not appear in the Latin form        expression is "only begotten
. . . . No man hath seen God at         of the Creed until A.D. 650,            Son." In my opinion this error
any time: the only begotten Son,        when the expression read: "His          should be corrected, though it is
which is in the bosom of the            eternally only begotten Son".           too late to correct it in our com-
Father, he hath declared him."          From that we would conclude             ing new edition of the Psalter.
   But the main question is: Is the     that in composing the Commu-            HCH] 0





                                        The Two Natures Of
 nking heed ~0 Christ: The Deitv
 The Doctrine                           of Christ cContinuedl                             '
Ronald H. Hanko


                                        4. The divine Person of Christ.         various heresies that have arisen
                                          In speaking of the two natures        in the church.
                                        of Christ, it is necessary not only        Now it is not my intention to
                                        to speak of these natures, but          define these terms at this point.
                                        also of the Person of Christ.           That I hope to do when we come
                                        These terms, "person" and               to the matter of the union of the
                                        "nature," are not so much               divine and human natures in
                                        biblical as theological terms, and      Christ. A definition of these terms
                                        are also used in connection with        will have more value at that
                                        the doctrine of the trinity. The        point. What must be seen at this
                                        use of them arose out of the need       point is that in speaking of the
                                        to express and define the truth of      divinity of Christ, we speak not
                                        Scripture concerning God Triune         only of the fact that He has the
Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity    and concerning Jesus Christ as         ~ divine nature, that is, that He is
Protestant Reformed Church, Houston,    clearly as possible over against       1 really God, and that all the
Texas.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  / 159


fulness of the Godhead is in Him           Even more significant for our        His blood the blood of His
(Col. 2:10), but we say also that       study, the truth that Christ is per-    humanity, but "the blood of God"
personally He is the Second Per-        sonally the Only Begotten Son of        (Acts 20:28). Likewise, we do not
son of the divine trinity, the Son.     God, the second Person of the           read of the incarnation merely as
Even through the incarnation He         trinity, means that the incarna-        the joining of the human and
is not and does not become two          tion is a matter of God becoming        divine natures, but of "God
persons, one human and one              flesh, not flesh becoming God.          manifest in the flesh' (I Tim.
divine, but is and remains, per-        Modern liberal theology, for ex-        3:16). It was in this connection
sonally and individually the Only       ample, has no problem with a            also that the early church insisted
Begotten Son, the Second Person         Christ Who as man becomes God.          that it was not wrong to speak of
of the Godhead. This is simply to       That is, in fact, the heart of          Mary as the mother of God.
say, of course, that even in the        liberal theology, that humanity           It is this same truth that Scrip-
incarnation He is one Person,           .can become or take on what is          ture is proving in Hebrews 1
one Christ, and one Saviour, the        divine. Thus liberal theologians        when it speaks of Christ as the
only Saviour. It ought to be ob-        have no problem with a Christ           One Who is the brightness of the
vious, therefore, that this war-        Who is divine in some vague, ill-       Father's glory, and the express
rants further discussion in con-        defined sense, but with a Christ        image of His person (vs. 3), and
nection with the union of the two       Who is personally divine, Who           continues by citing the evidence
natures of Christ, but here we          does not become but is God.             of various Scripture passages. It is
must see its importance as far as       Liberal theology, of course,            proving not just that Christ is
the deity of Christ is concerned.       always begins with man. That is         divine or that He has a divine
   Though this matter of Christ's       the reason Arminianism always           nature, but that He is God, the
Person may seem at first to be of       ends in modernism and                   great God Who speaks to His
very little significance, it is         liberalism. But when we say that        people. And it is in this same
nevertheless of the greatest possi-     Christ, personally and individual-      connection that Hebrews also
ble importance.                         ly is the Son of God, the second        reminds us that it is God Himself
   It is important first of all in      Person of the trinity incarnate,        with Whom we have to do in the
maintaining the Biblical doctrine       then we are beginning with God,         gospel: "Therefore we ought to
of the trinity. To say that Christ's    not man, and teaching the funda-        give the more earnest heed to
Person is the second Person of          mentals of sovereign grace.             the things which we have heard,
the trinity, or that He is personal-      That Christ is personally God         lest at any time we should let
ly the Son, is to maintain what         also means that we can never            them slip" (2:l). That He is really
Scripture says about God as being       deal with Him, speak of Him, or         and personally God means that
three distinct Persons in one           come to Him except as God.              we cannot escape should we so
divine Being. It is to say that it      Even after the incarnation He           much as neglect the salvation of
was not the Father or the Spirit        can never be to us only a man.          which He speaks.
Who came in the flesh, but the          The Person Who speaks and acts          5. The necessity of Christ's
Son. There were some in the ear-        through the human nature of             divinity.
ly history of the church who so         Christ is always God Himself.             That Christ be God is
blurred the distinction between         This makes our contact with             necessary in connection with all
the three Persons of the trinity,       Christ so critical. This makes the      the works of God. The creation
that they would say that the            question, "What think ye of the         itself as something made through
Father was crucified and suffered       Christ?" a question whose answer        Christ shows the very handiwork
on the cross. For this they were        has eternal consequences. To ex-        of God Himself. Christ in creation
called "Patripassionists." This, ob-    press this another way is to say        is not merely a tool, even a
viously, is not what Scripture          that in dealing with Christ, con-       divine tool, but He is God, work-
teaches. What is worse, it strikes      fronting His claims, hearing His        ing God's own handiwork in all
at the very heart of our faith, the     Word, obeying and following             things that are made.
atoning work of Christ, for it real-    Him, we are not just indirectly
ly denies that there is in God not      dealing with God, but dealing
only One to ,make atonement,            with Him personally, as it were,
but also One to Whom atone-             face to face, as the great Judge
ment can and must be made.              and Rewarder.
                                          Scripture teaches this very
                                        clearly. Because He is personally
                                        God, Scripture does not just call


160  /  The Standard Bearer


  Even more importantly, it is           Nor is this true only of                   newed on the same wood: for, for the
necessary that Christ be God in       righteousness and eternal life, but           sake of his picture, even the mere wood
connection with the damnation of      of all the blessings of salvation.            ,on which it is painted is not thrown
the ungodly. In Christ they were      They are all such as only He can              away, but the outline is renewed upon it;
                                                                                    in the same way also the most holy Son
given and are given today the         give as God. I Corinthians 15                 of the Father, being the Image of the
opportunity to show what they         speaks of heaven and of our                   Father, came to our region to renew man
really think of God, not abstract-    heavenly life as something we                 once made in His likeness. (The Incarna-
ly and impersonally, but face to      have only through Him,Who is                  tion of the Word, 13, 7 and 14, I & 2).
face, and are shown to be haters      the Lord from heaven (vss.                    And, as Athanasius himself knew
of God who will not bow before        47-49). It was not something that             so well, all this is simply to say
His glory and greatness. As Jesus     we could ever have had through                that if Christ is not God, we have
Himself says, "He that hath seen      Adam, though he had continued                 no Savior.
me, hath seen the Father" (Jn.        obedient to God, because Adam                 6. Conclusion.
14:9), and it could be added, "He     was of the earth, earthy. We                     In all of this we see that the
that hath heard Me and rejected       have sonship with God only                    truth of Christ's deity is one of
Me, hath heard and rejected the       through the Only Begotten Son,                the cornerstones of our Christian
Father."                              as we are reminded in Lord's                  faith. It cannot and may not be
  The same is true of salvation.      Day XIII of the Heidelberg                    tampered with in any way. But
Christ must be God in the work        Catechism; and the same is true               we must remember that it is not
of salvation, because the things      of our recreation in the image of             merely a doctrine, but the object
He does and gives are things that     God. Athanasius says of this                  of our faith. Simply to grasp in-
only God can do, and things that      restoration of the image of God               tellectually the meaning of this
belong to God, and which He           in man:                                       doctrine is not enough. We must
alone can give. The Heidelberg                                                      love it, and confess it, and make
                                        Whence the Word of God came in His
Catechism confesses this when it      own person, that, as He was the image of      it the foundation of all our hope
says that He must be "very God"       the Father, He might be able to create        in Christ. This we do when we
in order that He might "sustain in    afresh the man after the image , . . For      worship Christ, trust in Him,
                                      as, when the likeness painted on a panel
His human nature, the burden of                                                     while abandoning all trust in
                                      has been effaced by stains from without,
Gods wrath; and might obtain                                                        men, come to Him in faith, and
                                      he whose likeness it is must needs come
for, and restore to us, righteous-    once more to enable the portrait to be re-    hear and obey His Word. He may
ness and life" (VI, 17). Only                                                       not be just Lord and-God but
because He is God can He endure                                                     must be "my Lord and my God"
to the end the heavy burden of                                                      (Jn. 20:28). 0
Gods fury against sin without be-
ing everlastingly destroyed. Only
because He is God could He in a
few short hours endure an eterni-
ty of the punishment of sin. Like-    The Standard Bearer makes a
wise, the gifts of righteousness
and life that He must give us are     thoughtful gift for members of your
not earthly life or righteousness
by works, a righteousness that
might be again defiled or lost,       family, friends, and neighbors. Give
but the life of God Himself, life
eternal, and the righteousness of     a gift of the Standard Bearer.
God, which is forever incorrupti-
ble. Who but God Himself could
give such blessings?





                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer  / 161


                                               The Necessity Of The
  Decency And                                  Lawful Call To
  Order
 Ronald 1. Cammenga                            The Ministry  '

   "No one, though he be a professor of        THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS                 urgent, therefore, that the chur-
 theology, elder, or deacon, shall be per-     A R T I C L E                          ches be reminded of the Biblical
mitted to enter upon the ministry of the                                              truth expressed in this third arti-
 Word and the sacraments without having           Article 3 begins the treatment
been lawfully called thereunto. And            by the Church Order of the office      cle of our Church Order.
when anyone acts contrary thereto, and         of the ministry of the Word. This        Although Article 3 is directed
after being frequently admonished does         discussion will extend from Ar-        especially against those who in-
not desist, the classis shall judge whether    ticles 3-17. Article 3 is introduc-    trude themselves into the office
he is to be declared a schismatic or is to
be punished in some other way." Church         tory and emphasizes the necessi-       of the ministry, by implication
Order, Article 3.                              ty of the lawful call of the           the article is also directed against
                                               minister of the gospel. Article 4      all who enter the office unlaw-
                                               will describe the nature of the        fully, as not called by Christ.
                                               lawful call. Subsequent articles       Condemned is the sin of simony,
                                               will deal with various questions       the buying and selling of church
                                               regarding the office of the            office. This practice was common
                                               minister: his work, his removal to     in the Roman Catholic Church at
                                               another congregation, his sup-         the time of the Reformation, a
                                               port, his emeritation from office,     practice abhorrent to the Re-
                                               etc.                                   formed churches. Condemned is
                                                 This article has special applica-    all entering of the office by force,
                                               tion today when the importance         bribery, or deception. Con-
                                               of the lawful call is ignored or       demned are all those who seek
                                               denied. There are many who set         the office for reasons of personal
                                               themselves up as independent           ambition, rather than out of the
                                               evangelists, whose ministry            desire to be a servant and
                                               stands altogether apart from the       spokesman of Jesus Christ.
                                               instituted church. These men are         A note should be made about
                                               not called and sent out by the         the mention of the professor of
                                               church, and-are not under the          theology in this article: "No one,
                                               supervision df the church. This        though he be a professor of
                                               multiplication of independent,         theology . . . shall be permitted
                                               self-appointed evangelists has         to enter upon the ministry of the
                                               been a plague on the church. On        Word and the sacraments
                                               the other hand, in some circles, it    without having been lawfully
                                               is not uncommon that laymen            called thereunto." This article
                                               horn time to time carry out the        was written out of the historical
                                               duties that rightfully belong to       context of the Reformed
                                               the office of the ministry, even       churches in the Netherlands
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the
Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland,        though they have not been called       where the professors in the
Colorado.                                      and ordained to this office. It is     universities were appointed by

162 I The Standard Bearer


the State and were for the most        God or to any other ecclesiastical        The New Testament continues
part unordained men. This pro-         office without a lawful calling,       to demonstrate the importance of
vision of Article 3 has no direct      election, approbation, proper ex-      the lawful call to the ministry.
application to us, since our pro-      amination, and lawful order."          The apostles were called and sent
fessors are already ordained men.      The Synod of Emden,  157 1, ruled      out directly by Christ. Time and
THE HISTORY OF ARTICLE 3               that no one, though he be a pro-       again the Apostle Paul em-
   Article 3 addresses a problem       fessor of theology, elder, or          phasizes that he is an apostle by
that arose shortly after the in-       deacon, shall be permitted to          the will of God,  I Cor.  1:l;  II Cor.
troduction of the Reformation in-      enter the ministry of the Word         1:2; Eph. 1:l. Romans lo:15 is
to the Lowlands. At the time of        and sacraments without having          important with.respect to the
the Reformation, many clergy left      been lawfully called. The Synod        necessity of the lawful call: "And
the Roman Catholic Church and          of Dordrecht, 1574, ruled that         how shall they preach, except
became itinerant, self-appointed       the classis should twice call in-      they be sent?" Hebrews 5:4 is
preachers. These men often in-         truders to account, and in the         also relevant: "And no man
truded upon the labors and con-        event they refused to desist,          taketh this honor unto himself,
gregations of those who had            should expose them and issue           but he that is called of God, as
been lawfully called. Besides          warning against them to the            was Aaron." Other passages of
these itinerant preachers, there       other classes as schismatics.  This    Scripture may be consulted: Mat-
were also the Anabaptist               synod even went so far as to           thew 9:38; John lO:l, 2; Acts
preachers who travelled from           petition the civil magistrates to      20:28;  I Corinthians  12:28; and
city to city, without a fixed          charge the police to bar from          Ephesians 4: 11.
charge, and for the most part          church pulpits all who could not         The crucial point in connection
without any formal training.           produce valid credentials proving      with the lawful call in the New
   Besides the problem with the        they had been lawfully called.         Testament is that God issues the
itinerant preachers, there was         The Synod of Dordrecht, 1578,          lawful call through the church
also often confusion over the          affirmed the decisions of the          herself. This is the teaching of
distinct labors of the ministry.       Synod of 1574. The wording of          the Books of Acts. According to
Although many agreed that the          our present article is the work of     Acts 1:23, "And they (that is, the
itinerant preachers should not be      the Synod of Middelburg, 1581.         members of the church) ap
permitted to assume the labors of      SCRIPTURE'S TEACHING CON-              pointed two, Joseph called Bar-
the ministry, they were willing to     CERNING THE NECESSITY OF               sabas, who was surnamed Justus,
allow especially the elders to ad-     THE LAWFUL CALL                        and Matthias." Acts 6 records the
minister the Word and the                Already in the Old Testament         calling to office of the first
sacraments. That elders were ad-       the necessity of the lawful call to    deacons in the New Testament
ministering the sacrament of bap-      office is emphasized. Prophets,        church. What is significant is that
tism is evident from questions         priests, and kings were directly       these men were chosen and called
concerning this practice that          appointed by God. The authority        to office by the election of the
were forwarded to some of the          in which the prophets came to          church. The opening verses of
early synods. To the Synod of          Israel rested on the fact that God     Acts 13 record the Spirit's separa-
Dordrecht, 1578, the question          lad called and sent them. "Also I      tion of Paul and Barnabas to be
was directed whether baptism ad-       leard the voice of the Lord, say-      the first missionaries. Although
ministered by a private person or      .ng, Whom shall I send, and who        separated by the Spirit, Paul and
an elder should be recognized as       will go for us? Then said I, Here      Barnabas were appointed and
a valid baptism.                       irn I; send me," Isaiah 6:8. "And      sent out by the congregation at
  As far as the specific history of    :he Lord took me as I followed         Antioch. It is significant that at
Article 3 is concerned, one of the     :he flock, and the Lord said unto      the conclusion of each missionary
first Reformed synods to insist on     ne, Go, prophesy unto my peo-          journey, Paul always reported
the necessity of the lawful call to    )le Israel," Amos 7:15. Those          back to the congregation at An-
the ministry was the Synod of          who had not been sent and              tioch. II Corinthians 8:19 speaks
Tours, 1563. The Synod of              -alled by God were condemned as        of Titus "who was also chosen of
Wezel, 1568, passed the resolu-        ialse prophets and usurpers. "I        the churches" to labor with Paul.
tion that, ". . . it is very           nave not sent these prophets, yet In II Timothy 4:14 Paul reminds
necessary that no one is admitted      :hey ran: I have not spoken to         Timothy that he had been put in-
to the ministry of the Word of         ;hem, yet they prophesied,"            to office "with the laying on of
                                       Jeremiah 23:2 1.                       the hands of the presbytery
                                                                              (elders)."


                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  / 163


    The insistence of our Church            frequently admonished does not          and admonished. Discipline
Order on the necessity of the               desist, the classis shall judge         always begins with admonition. If
lawful calling of the minister of           whether he is to be declared a          those involved continue, they are
the gospel, as well as its in-              schismatic or is to be punished in      to be denounced publicly as
sistence in subsequent articles             some other way."                        schismatics,  excommunicated
that the lawful call consists of the          By mentioning specifically the        from the church, and all the
call by the church, `is based               classis, the article does not intend    classes warned against them. In
squarely on the teaching of the             to overlook the responsibility of       the event that a particular con-
Scriptures.                                 the local consistory. Discipline        gregation refuses to recognize
VIOLATORS TO BE DEALT                       always begins at the local level.       the action of the classis, they also
WITH                                        Certainly consistories must take        are to be dealt with.
   Article 3 not only insists on the        action against those who attempt          Those serving in the ministry
necessity of the lawful call, but           to intrude into the office of the       of the Word must be lawfully
also prescribes the manner in               ministry.                               called to their office. No one may
which violators are to be dealt               Article 3, however, is con-           intrude himself into the office.
with: "And when anyone acts                 cerned with the climax of the           This is decency and good order
contrary thereto, and after being           treatment of violators, if they         in the church of Jesus Christ. El
                                            stubbornly refuse to desist. First,
                                            they are to be publicly exposed





 Guided Into                                Rationalism And Its
All Truth
Thomas C. Miersma                           Fruit (2)

                                              The principle of rationalism by       mind which is at the same time a
                                            which man, by his own reason            force or first cause of all that ex-
                                            and thought can come to a               ists. From this first cause
                                            knowledge of the truth without          everything else is generated by a
                                            divine revelation, led, as we have      series of sparks struck from the
                                            seen, to the making of an idol, of      divine being which in turn
                                            a philosophical god, after man's        generate other lesser beings or
                                            own imagination. Thus it led to         monads. In reality this was
                                            the worship of the creature and         nothing more than a warmed-
                                            not the Creator. It is not surpris-     over version of first century
                                            ing therefore that it would also        Gnostic heresies which had
                                            lead to the resurrection of old         plagued the early church.
                                            heresies rooted in pre-Christian          With such speculative ra-
                                            paganism. This tendency mani-           tionalistic thinking as that of
                                            fested itself in the philosophy of      Leibnitz, Rationalism reached a
                                            Leibnitz. In Leibnitz the dif-          certain limit. It had fundamental-
                                            ference between God and the             ly been no more able than the
                                            creature is one of degree. It is        philosophies of the heathen
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First                                            before it to search out God unto
Protestant Reformed Church of Edmon-        not an essential difference. Leib-
ton, Alberta, Canada.                       nitz's god is an infinite spirit or     perfection, or to find Him and ar-

164 / The Standard Bearer


rive at truth. Rationalism had set     was the result of man's imagina-      .was rampant agnosticism and
aside faith in Gods self-revelation    tion reacting upon his experience     practical atheism, and man
to us in His Word, to place its        out of fear and ignorance.            turned his mind to the discussion
trust in the unaided reason of         Hume's arguments proceeded            of politics, and economics, to
man. But man's reason is both          from an evolutionary theory of        history, and sociology. He did so
finite and fallible. The result in     the development of religion from      seeking to bring all things before
the latter part of the 1600's and      primitive nature worship and          the bar of his own reason, the
1700's was the appearance of a         belief in spirits to the belief in    light of his own experience, intui-
certain skepticism concerning the      one God.                              tion and perception. For the
power of man's unaided reason            The effects of Rationalism and      same reason this period of the
alone. This did not lead to a          the reaction of skepticism, with      eighteenth century is also some-
development in the truth,              its emphasis upon man's mind in       times called the age of enlighten-
however. Instead, to man's             man's world as the arbiter of         ment, for it was thus-that man
reason was added man's w.orld          truth, were felt throughout the       regarded himself; though
and man's experience. Descartes        1700's. Rationalism had severed       spiritually it was an age of
had begun by finding in man's          the truth of God from its basis in    decline and darkness. It was a
conscious reason alone a basis         divine revelation and the Word        period of corruption within the
for truth. The skeptics argued         of God. Their philosophical god       church, of spiritual indifference
that man's reason was shaped by        served not only to undermine the      and worldly-mindedness, a time
his experiences, perceptions, and      truth of God revealed in His          of war, the rising of nation
impressions of the world outside       Word, but also became the             against nation, and of revolution
of himself, whatever the nature        means to attack that truth. The       and strife which would flow over
of that world might be. It was in      God of the Bible and the god of       into the nineteenth century. War
the interplay of experience and        philosophy were identified as         also was made upon the doctrine
reason, perception and interpre-       one; the assault upon the one         and existence of the Christian
tation, that truth and certainty       became an assault upon the            church and the Word of God in
were to be found. By this ap-          other. Philosophy was free to         particular.
proach man's reason was not cast       play with the god of its own imag-      Deists such as Collins
from the throne, but turned from       ination and to banish him from        (1676-1729) in England, Holback
abstract speculation toward the        man's world altogether. Thus the      (1723-1789) in France, and
practical realm of everyday life       fundamental fruit of rationalism,     atheists such as Thomas Paine in
and experience.                        under the more practical turn of      the American colonies, sought to
  As with Descartes, there was         mind which manifested itself in       pull the Bible apart and tear it to
at first on the part of some an at-    the 1700's, was Deism.                pieces. The miracles of Scripture
tempt to include within the realm        Under the philosophy of             were ridiculed as contrary to
of experience and reason also the      Deism, God or a god was prin-         man's experience and reason, the
existence of divine revelation,        cipally banished from the world,      result of credulity and ignorance
and to make room for faith. This       and with Him also His selfi           upon the part of those who re-
was the approach of those who          revelation. The philosophy of         ported them. Men sought to dis-
sought to defend the Christian         deism conceived of a god, if it       credit the Old Testament proph-
faith by rationalistic means,          acknowledged that there was a         ecies concerning the coming of
among whom may be numbered             god at all, as merely a being like    Christ, to explain them away or
the English philosophers Locke         a watchmaker who had brought          give them another meaning, that
(1632- 1704) and Berkeley              the world into existence, wound       they might deny the reality of
(1685-1753). This attempt to de-       it up like a watch, and set it to     prophecy in the Word of God.
fend divine revelation on the          run on its own. The world of          The supposed inconsistencies of
basis of man's perception,             man's experience, then, was           the Biblical narratives in the
however, could not stand. Others       totally governed only by natural      gospels were set against one
such as Hume (1711-1775) re-           laws which were discernible by        another to discredit the New
versed the argument and denied         science and philosophy. Man's         Testament. God's righteousness
any consistent experience by           life was bounded by his life in       and His love and mercy were set
which God's existence or at-           this world, with the watch, and       in opposition to one another to
tributes could be determined. ln-      had nothing to do with a god, the     discredit the Old Testament.
stead, they traced the origin of       watchmaker. The result of Deism       Jesus was made a mere man, a
religion itself to man's imagina-                                            good teacher of morality, fol-
tion and fancy. Religion to Hume                                             lowed by a group of credulous


                                                                                            The Standard Bearer  / 165


and superstitious disciples who       tian church, its doctrines, and        Among them were men like
intruded their own superstitions      foundation. In Germany also the        Paley (1743-1805),  who argued
into the gospels. The Deist           rationalism of Leibnitz spread its     from the existence of the watch
Thomas Jefferson went so far as       influence upon theology, and was       to the watchmaker, but who was
to cut out of his Bible every         followed by skepticism and             willing to compromise when it
passage which he did not regard       Deism. The poet and dramatist          came to the chronology of the Bi-
as consistent with human reason,      Lessing (1729- 178 1) spread the       ble, or to the days of creation,
decimating the gospels, stripping     views of the enlightenment by          and who were content if only the
them of the miracles of Christ.       denying the possibility of revela-     truth that God created was con-
Thus Jefferson has not only the       tion and teaching that Christiani-     fessed. In France, the French rev-
distinction of being one of the       ty, Judaism, and Islam are all         olution prevailed, with its proud
authors of the Declaration of ln-     true religions because they pro-       rebellion and open hatred of
dependence but also of one of         duced noble men, reducing              the Christian religion. In England,
the first condensed versions of       religion to a mere common              toleration of unbelief within the
the Bible, a version according to     denominator of natural belief in a     church prevailed. In Holland, the
the wisdom and criticism of man       deity and morality.                    government prevented the
who presumes to sit in judgment         It was with great difficulty that    church from exercising discipline
upon the Word of God.                 the church kept and preserved          and sheltered those who pro-
   On the continent of Europe the     the light of the Word of God, and      moted error. In Germany
situation was essentially the         the preaching of that Word. For        likewise the influences of both
same. Men such as Rousseau            Deism also entered the churches        Rationalism and Deism made
(1712-1778) and Voltaire              and corrupted them from within.        their presence felt as the church
(1694-l 778) ridiculed the Chris-     Men sought to defend Christianity      declined.  Cl
                                      with the methods of Deism.





                                      Book Review

Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and          which would have destroyed             some early forms of Gnosticism
Early Christianity, Ed. by Charles    Christianity. In many respects, it     were present during the
W. Hedrick & Robert Hodgson,          is similar to today's more liberal     Apostolic Era and that Paul (e.g.,
Jr. Hendrickson Publishers,           ecumenical movements which             in Col. 2:20-23) and John (e.g., in
Peabody, Massachusetts; 1986.         seek to unite oriental religions,      I John l:l-3) were writing against
332 pp., $14.95 (paper). (Re-         Mohammedanism, Judaism, and            these errors.
viewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)            Christianity into one world-wide         In 1945 archeologists dis-
   Gnosticism was a heresy which      religion.                              covered the so-called Nag Ham-
appeared in the early church and        No writings of Gnostic thinkers      madi library (hence the title of
against which the church had a        were thought to be extant, and         this book) in the desert south and
long and bitter struggle before       all the knowledge which the            east of Palestine, in the same
victory was achieved. Its basic       church possessed of Gnosticism         general area in which the Dead
character was its synthesis of        came from the early church             Sea Scrolls were found. This
Christianity, Oriental mysticism      fathers who wrote against it in        library contained 53 Gnostic
and pagan philosophy; and             defense of Christianity. The result    works written by Gnostic
because of this character, its        was that large gaps remained in        thinkers. It stands to reason, of
threat was a synthesizing of          an understanding of Gnosticism.        course, that this material is in-
Christianity with pagan thought,      Some are of the opinion that           valuable to those who are in-

166  / The Standard Bearer


terested in this ancient heresy,            to these new discoveries of                rent thinking about Gnosticism in
for it gives scholars a great deal          Gnostic literature. Thirteen               the light of these new findings.
of information hitherto unavail-            scholars who had had access to             While not all will be interested in
able, and brings new light upon             the Nag Hammadi library                    this material, the book is impor-
Gnostic thought.                            presented papers. This book is an          tant for colleges and Seminaries.
   In 1983 at Springfield,                  edited version of those papers.            It is a must for those who wish to
Missouri, a Working Seminar was             While some of the material is              keep abreast of current Gnostic
held to give preliminary attention          technical, the book contains cur-          studies.  q
                                                                                  -





                                            News From
Ben Wigger                                  Our Churches

                       January  1,1988      congregation. There were eight             1972. The next spring ground
   It has been a couple of months           families with a total of fourteen          was broken. Much of the work
now since we have had a church              children.                                  was done by the church
profile in our news. Let's change             The Rev. George Lubbers                  members. It was a difficult job,
that by looking at the history of           became their first under-                  but on May 24, 1974, a new
Randolph Protestant Reformed                shepherd. When he and his fami-            church building was dedicated.
Church in Randolph, Wisconsin.              ly came, they moved into a par-               Another dream began as the
   In 1942 the Mission Committee            sonage that had just been bought           church grew, and there were
of our churches came to work in             for $1,400.00.                             more and more children: the
the Randolph area. Rev. C.                    The early years saw Randolph             dream of their own school. A
Hanko, with his consistory of the           still "sharing" the Congregational         school society was started and
Oak Lawn, Ill., congregation, was           Church. However in 195 1, they             later disbanded. But the dream
instrumental in these beginnings.           purchased property with a                  still lived. In 1981 a second
In Sept. of that same year, the in-         building on it. It was just a base         school society was begun. But
terested group rented the                   ment, but it was their own base-           the money needed not only for
Congregational Church in town,              ment and services could be held            the building of a new school, but
using it Sunday afternoons and              mornings and afternoons.                   also the day-to-day running of
evenings.                                     Through the years Randolph               that school, was just not available
   In August of 1943, Randolph              has enjoyed the preaching of the           at that time. Prayers were con-
Protestant Reformed Church                  reverends G. Lubbers (44-50), H.           tinually being offered that God
came into being as an organized             Kuiper (51-54), G. Van Baren               would show the way and provide
                                            (62-65), D. Kuiper (67-70) W.              the means.
                                            Bekkering (72-77), K. Koole                   Randolph's church life is an ac-
                                            (77-82), J. Slopsema (82-86) and           tive one. They have a Men's, a
                                            since January of last year Pastor          Ladies', and a Young People's
                                            A. den Hartog. Randolph also en-           Society. They also enjoy various
                                            dured the turmoil of dissention            special occasion singspirations
                                            during the labor of one man who            and programs, Young People's
                                            eventually left for another                evenings (gym nights, soup sup-
                                            denomination. Randolph has also            pers), church extension work (lec-
                                            been vacant three different times          tures, slide presentations, Basic
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant    for a total of seven years.                Christian Truth Classes), the 4th
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,               Plans for a new church                   of July picnic, and a Fall Fellow-
Michigan.                                   building were begun in the fall of         ship Supper.

                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer I 767


 -F-f
STANDARD                                                                                                SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                        Postage Paid at
BEitRER                                                                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan
PO. Box 6064
Grand  Rapids, MI 49506


  Randolph now numbers 28              be some bound in paperback                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
families and 5 individuals with a      book form covering one whole                      On January 8, 1988, the Lord
total of 69 children, including 9      year. These books are the project              willing, our parents and grand-
college students, 16 high              of the Hudsonville Prot. Ref.                  parents, MR. AND MRS. FRED
schoolers, 32 kindergarteners          Church's Men's Society. If you                 HUIZINCA, will celebrate their
through 8th graders, and 12 pre-       haven't gotten your own personal               40th wedding anniversary.
schoolers. Randolph is a small         copy yet, be sure you do so soon.                 We are grateful that God has
farming community and there are        From all appearances it looks like             given them to each other and to
seven farm families in the             a worthwhile addition to                       us for so many years. We pray
church. There are also an equal        anyone's library.                              that God will continue to bless
number of men who are general            Hope Prot. Ref. Christian                    them in the years to come.
laborers, working for a local seed     School in Walker presented their                  "For this God is our God for-
company, driving a feed truck, or      All-School Program and 40th An-                ever and ever: he will be our
working in local factories. There      niversary Commemoration on the                 guide even unto death." (Psalm
are six in the construction field,     evening of Thursday, December                  48:14)
three who own service                  10 at the First Jenison Christian              Rick and Terri Huizinga
businesses, a husband and wife         Reformed Church.                               Jack Huizinga
who teach, and an electrician.           The Sunday School of the                     Dan and Carol Huizinga
   Randolph has lost members of        Trinity Prot..Ref. Church in                   Dot and Jan Kuiper
                                                                                      Larry and Ruth Burgess
late to sister churches in the         Houston,. TX invited the children                and 16 grandchildren
denomination because of the            and the parents of the congrega-               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
economy. There are more and            tion to the annual fall outing,                   The Adult Bible Class of Faith
better jobs in the bigger cities.      Saturday, November 14. They                    Protestant Reformed Church ex-
But God continues with Ran-            were all planning to spend the                 presses its sincere sympathy to
dolph. His truth is proclaimed         day at the Houston Zoo.                        Rev. and Mrs. W. Bekkering and
from the pulpit each Sunday,             The Council of First Church in               family in the passing of Mrs.
strengthening, encouraging, and        Grand Rapids has decided to                    Bekkering's father and their
blessing those in Randolph as His      overture Synod to make the                     children's grandfather, MR.
beloved flock.                         Reformed Witness Hour a                        PETER BOER.
  "Daily Devotions" written by         denominational work. Today and                    "For I reckon that the suffer-
Rev. John Heys are now ready.          through its more than 45 years of              ings of this present time are not
These one-page-a-day Bible             broadcasting, the Reformed                     worthy to be compared with the
studies are the result of a request    Witness Hour has been a First                  glory which shall be revealed in
that came from members of our          Church project. Other of our                   us." (Romans 8:18)
sister churches in Singapore.          churches contribute support               I    Mrs. John Veldman, Sec'y.
These one-page jewels, one for         and/or sponsor stations, but the               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
every day of the year, cover           R.W.H. has never had denomina-                    The Senior Mr. and Mrs.
many subjects of interest for          tional backing as a whole. The                 Society of Southwest Protestant
every child of God, such as hope,      Radio Committee also reported                  Reformed Church expresses its
praise, prayer, confessions, for-      that currently denominational                  Christian sympathy to Chuck
giveness, joy, and many more.          (through Synod) spending equals                and Joanne Bult in the death of
They are all based on the Psalms.      about ten cents per family per                 his father, MR. ARTHUR BULT.
   They are printed in sets of         week. And as.little as $1.00 per                  "Surely he hath borne our
twelve small, handy, monthly           week would generate about            '         griefs and carried our sorrows."
booklets that are available now        $65,000 to give a larger working               (Isaiah  53:4)
from your local Protestant Re-         balance for expanding the radio                John Van  Baren, Pres.
formed Church. Soon there will         witness.  0                                    Ruth Oosterhouse, Sec'y.


768  / The Standard Bearer


