                .. ..sI;QNDN
 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
M a g a z i n e





volume b4, NO. -I/
june 7, 7988


 Contents                                                                   lune I, 1988                 THE
                                                                                                    SZWVDW
Meditation -                                                                                           BIFiWER
The Outpouring Of The Promised Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . .386
Editorial -                                                                                         ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                    Seini-monthly,  except monthly during June, July,
The Creation Record Literal : . . . . . . . . . . . F . . ., . . . . . . . . . . . . .390           and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
Guest Article - Kenneth Hanko                                                                       lishinn  Association. Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                                    at Grand  Rapids, Mich.
Supporting The Preachers Of The Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .391                       EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
                                                                                                    Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
Walking In The Light - Herman C. Hank0                                                              DEPARTMENT   EDITORS
                                                                                                    Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
Drunkenness(2).......................................3?3                                            Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                                    Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
The Day of Shadows - john A. Heys                                                                   Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Korter-
The Awesome Shadow of Coming Sins. . . . . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . : . .395                       ing, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
                                                                                                    Miersma,.Rev. lames Slopsema,  Rev. Cise J. Van
The Strength of Youth - Barrett L. Critters                                                         Baren, Mr. Benjamin Wigger.
                                                                                                   EDITORIAL   OFFICE
"Should I Begin To Smoke?". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . .398               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                   4975 lvanrest  Ave., S.W.
Bible  Study Guide - Jason  L. Kortering                                                            Crandville, Michigan 49418
                                                                                                   CHURCH   NEWS   EDITOR
Joshua - Receiving The Promised land (3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Ol                     Mr. Ben Wigger
Taking Heed To The Doctrine - Ronald H. Hanko                                                      6597 - 40th Ave.
                                                                                                   Hudsonville,  Michigan 49426
The Two Natures of Christ: The Union of the Human and                                              EDITORIAL   POLICY
                                                                                                   Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
    Divine Natures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .403    of his own articlei. Contributions of general in-
                                                                                                   terest from our readers and questions for the
BookReview.........:...............................406                                             Question Box Department are welcome. Contribu-
                                                                                                   tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
Report of Classis East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406      and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407             must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
                                                                                                   the fifteenth of the month. All communications
                                                                                                   relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                   editorial office.
                                                                                                   REPRINT   POLICY
                                                                                                   Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
Meditation                                           But this is that which was                    articles in our magazine by other public&xv,
                                                                                                   provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
                                                  spoken by the prophet Joel;                      reproduced-in full; b) that proper acknowledge-
                                                                                                   ment is made; cl that a copy of the periodical in
                                                                                                   which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial
 The Outl                                         And it shall come to pass in                     office.
                                                  the last days, saith God, I will                 BUSINESS   OFFICE
                                                  pour out of my Spirit upon all                   The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                   Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                  flesh: and your sons and your.                   P.O. Box 6064
                    0
 pouring                                                                                           Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516
                                                  daughters shall prophesy, and                    PH: (6161 243-2953
                                                                                                   NEW   ZEALAND   BUSINESS   OFFICE
                                                  your young men shall see                         The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                   c/o Protestant Reformed Church
Of The                                            visions, and your old men                        B. Van Herk, 66 Fraser St.
                                                  shall dream dreams: And on                       Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                   SUBSCRIPTION   POLICY
                                                  my servants and on my hand-                      Subscription price, 512.00 per year. Unless a
                                                                                                   definite request for discontinuance is received, it
 Promised                                         maidens I will pour out in                       is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
                                                  those days of my Spirit; and                     tion to continue without the formality of a
                                                                                                   renewal order, and he will be billed for renewal. If
                                                  they shall prophesy.                             you have a change of address, please notify the
                                                                                                   Business Office as early as possible in order to
 Spirit                                                                       Acts 2:16-18         avoid the inconvenience of delayed delivery. Iri-
                                                                                                   elude  your Zip Code.
                                                                                                   ADVERTISING   POLICY
                                                     This is that!                                 The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial
                                                                                                   advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
                                                     The "that" is the promise,                    and school events, anniversaries, obituaries, and
                                                  spoken centuries before and pre-                 sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00
                                                                                                   fee. These should be sent to the Business Office
                                                  served in the Holy Scriptures of                 and should be accompanied by the 53.00 fee.
                                                                                                   Deadline for announcements is the 1st and the
                                                  the old dispensation.                            15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                     And the "this" is the fulfillment             15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                                   BOUND   VOLUMES
                                                  of the promise, witnessed in the                 The Business Office will accept standing orders
                                                  signs of the sound as of a rushing               for bound copies of the current volume; such
                                                                                                   orders are filled as soon as possible after comple-
*This meditation is from the pen of the           wind, the cloven tongues as of                   tion of a volume. A limited number of past
                                                                                                   volumes may be obtained through the Business
late Rev. Herman Hoeksema and was                 fire'that sat upon each of the                   Office.
published originally in Volume 22, pp.            company of one hundred twenty                    16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and  105mni
                                                                                                   microfiche, and article copies are available
409  ft:                                                                                           through University Microfilms International.


386 / The Standard Bearer


gathered in Jerusalem; and                Life could go on as before!          drink - even a glass of. wine -
witnessed, too; by the `fact that         The temple could remain, the         with respectable men, -such as*
now they all had become                 altar would stand, the sacrifices      Pharisees and scribes, may be
prophets, and spoke of the won-         could be offered as always;            perfectly proper; but who does
derful works of God "with other         proper respect could be paid to        not know that one who eats with
tongues, as the Spirit gave them        the leaders of the church, the         publicans sinners is a .glutton  and
utterance."                             Sanhedrin and the high priest,         a winebibber? And besides, was
  This is that!                         the scribes and the Pharisees.         He not from Nazareth, from
  It certainly is not, thus the         And if these men that were full        which place nothing good ever
apostle Peter emphatically              of sweet wine could only be per-       came? And did they not know
declares before the great               suaded to submit to the vote of        His father and mother, and even
multitude that had come together        the majority, or to the sentence       His brothers and sisters? How,
to that wonderful sight - it cer-       of the supreme council of the          then, could He be the Christ?
tainly is not what some of you          church, and promise to speak no        And if you should call attention
mockers make of this: these are         more of these things, or, at least,    to the fact that this Jesus did
not signs of drunkenness. Thus,         to confine their speech to their       many wonderful works, and that
in fact, some of the multitude          own company, even they might           He cast out devils, the explana-
had tried to explain away their         be. tolerated. One does not have       tion was not difficult to find: He
amazement: "These men are full          to be hard on people who are full      cast out devils through
of new wine." Unbelief, standing        of new wine!                           Beelzebub, the prince of the
amazed and dumbfounded in                 All would be well.                   devils!
"the day of the Lord," is always          The axe could still be removed         Yes, indeed, rumors had it,
ready with an "explanation" of          from the root of the tree; and the     later, that He arose from the
the signs of that day,.an explana-      tree, the ecclesiastical tree, in      dead. But it was not at all difi,
tion that can allay its fears of the    which also mockers and un-             ficult to see the true meaning of
coming judgment. A wicked and           believers were permitted to make       these rumors: His disciples had
adulterous generation always            their. nests, would remain stand-      stolen the body of Jesus, while
asks for a sign; yet, when the          ing.                                   the Roman death-watch slept!
sign comes - God's sign - they            So let us mock at the thing,           These men are full of sweet
do not want it, and impose upon         and pass on!                           wine!
it their own interpretation.              When John the Baptist spoke             0, this explanation might not
  This is not that!                     of things similar to those now ut-     fit all the facts; but it was-satis-
  These men are not full of             tered by this company of men           factory enough. And if only it
sweet wine!                             and women on the day of                could be officially adopted by
  Such an interpretation of these       Pentecost, these same mockers          majority vote, the voice of these
strange signs, such an explana-         and unbelievers - 0, they were         men would be silenced, and the
tion of what these men spoke,           "church-men!" - made it very           house of these mockers would be
would, to the mockers and               plain that his word could not be       saved from destruction.
unbelievers, at least be harmless.      accepted: was he not in the              But - thus Peter, standing up
It would leave them undisturbed.        desert, instead of in Jerusalem?       with the eleven - this is not
Who would have to pay attention         And was he not really an Ana-          that!
to the babble and twaddle of '          baptist, who came neither eating         These men are not drunken.
drunken men? If such an expla-          nor drinking? And did he, then,        Apart now from the obvious fact
nation of the thing that had come       not have a devil? When, in the         that such a theory would not ex-
to pass in Jerusalem couid  be ac-      days of His flesh, Jesus of            plain the signs of the sound as of
cepted as correct, preferably by        Nazareth followed up the               a mighty wind, and of the cloven
majority vote, they could ignore        preaching of John, proclaiming         tongues as of fire, it was only the
this prophesying, the call to           the nearness of the same king-         third hour of the day. And to be
repentance and to be baptized in        dom of God, these mockers and          sure, at nine o'clock in the morn-
the name of Jesus, Who had              unbelievers who are always             ing one might meet a stray drunk
been condemned and crucified            present wherever the kingdom of        on the street, but how absurd to
(also by majority vote); and they       God is coming, sang a different        suppose that a company of one
could continue in their sin!            tune, but with the same end in         hundred and twenty men would
                                        view. Did He not come eating           go banqueting and revelling in
                                        and drinking, and that, too, with      the wee hours of the morning!
                                        publicans and sinners? 0,  to.           No, this is not that!


                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 387


   .But this is the realization of           For He is the Spirit of God. He        glorious Christ, that rich Head of
the promise!                               is very God, like the Father and         His church, received the promise
    This is that which was, long           the Son. For so He is called, and        of the Holy Spirit, that in that
ago, spoken by the prophet Joel:           so He is revealed in all His             Spirit He might return to His
"And it shall come to pass in the          mighty works. All the works of           church and fill her with His
last days, saith,God, I will pour          God are of the Father, through           g r a c e .
out of my Spirit upon all                  the Son, and in the Spirit. And             Thus the Apostle Peter, "stand-
flesh . . . ."                             with the Father and the Son, He          ing up with the eleven," pro-
   It means that God has visited           is co-equal, in divine perfections.      claims the gospel on that
His people!                                Nor is He a mere power or ef-            memorable day of Pentecost:
   The promise has been fulfilled!         fluence of God Who is a Spirit;          "This Jesus hath God raised up,
             * * * *:*                     Indeed, when the text .here              whereof we all are witnesses.
   This is that!                           teaches that, on the day of              Therefore being by the right
   And that puts the mockers in            Pentecost, God poured out of His         hand of God exalted, and having
an entirely critical position!             Spirit, the emphasis lies on the         received of the Father the prom-
   For if this, these signs, and the       fact that, by this pouring out,          ise of the Holy Ghost; he hath
fact that these men speak in               many gifts of grace are bestowed         shed'forth this, which we now
other tongues, and what they               upon the church; besides, He is          see and hear."
speak  - if this is the manifest&          poured .out on all flesh, and on            In Him the exalted Christ
tion of the fact that the promise,         all the servants and handmaidens         returned!
as spoken by the prophet Joel,             of the living God: all partake of           He is the Spirit of the fulfill-
has been fulfilled, then this is the       the Spirit. But He is, like the          ment of the promise. As such He
day of the Lord!                           Father and the Son, a definite           was not yet under the old dispen-
   Then, indeed, there is cause            divine Person: He wills, -and            sation, because Jesus was not yet
for great joy and thanksgiving for         knows, and acts; He instructs,           glorified (John 7:39). 0, indeed,
the church of God in the world,            and witnesses, and assures. He is        also in .the church of the Old'
for those who look for salvation           the Spirit of the Father, and of         Testament the Spirit of God, and
in Israel. But, as always on the           the Son, in Whom the Father              that, too, as the Spirit of Christ
"day of the Lord," then there is           loves the Son, and the Son loves         Who was to come, was revealed,
reason for fear and consternation          the Father, and Who searches the         and operated. For also the saints
on the `part of all the carnal seed,       depths of God! Where He dwells,          of old were saved; were regener-
for those who will not repent,             there dwell the Father and the           ated, believed, and had the for-
and who never enter into the               Son: there is the dwellingplace,         giveness of sins. Yet, even as
kingdom of God, whenever and               the covenant of the triune God!          Christ had not yet come, so the
howsoever it comes!                          And He is the.Spirit of Christ!        Spirit of Christ, as the fulfillment
   For then these men, instead of            For He is so'called.  And, in-         of the promise, was not yet. Even
babbling like drunken men,.                deed, the2Spirit of `God and the         as the church of the old dispensa-
speak "as the Spirit gave them ut-         Spirit of Christ are one and the         tion knew and saw. the day of
terance," and they do, indeed,             same divine Person; yet the view-        Christ only in the dim shadows of
speak of the wonderful works of            point is different. For as the Spirit    the law, so the Spirit of Christ led
God!                                       of Christ, He is the God of our          that church always to the law, to
   ,God has poured out of His              salvation, dwelling in and with          temple and altar and sacrifices, to
Spirit.                                    the Church, to fill her with all the     prophet and priest and king, to
   And it is in the power of that          blessings of grace obtained for          the signs and symbols of that
Spirit that these men now speak!           her by the death and resurrection        which was to come in order that
   The Spirit speaks through               of her Lord. For the Son of God          they might dimly apprehend the
t h e m :   t h e y   p r o p h e s y !    came. to dwell in human flesh,           things of the kingdom of God.
   In the Spirit the God of our            tabernacled among us, obtained           And for the rest, this Spirit
salvation in Jesus Christ has              eternal salvation for us, died and       dwelled in a few prophets, en-
come down to us, to establish His          was raised; was exalted in               lightening them and speaking
dwellingplace with us, and to              highest glory, far above all             through them of things to come.
abide with us forever!                     principalities and powers, leading       These prophets saw visions and
                                           captivity captive, richly endowed        dreamed dreams.. They stood on
                                           with all spiritual blessings of          the mountain-tops of revelation,
                                           salvation for His people. And that       whence they could see the things
                                           exalted Lord, that exceedingly           of the kingdom of God, "the day


388  / The Standard  Beak.


of the Lord," afar off. And the          For always the promise of God        and its realization is accom-
people dwelled in the valley           is for the church. Ever it follows     plished in the church. The
below, and looked up to these          the rule: "Unto you is the prom-       "world' cannot and does not
prophets for the knowledge of          ise, and unto your children." It       receive the Spirit of Christ.
the Lord.                              was to that church that the prom-      Hence, the prophet explains:
   But now the Spirit is come!         ise was made, through the              "your sons and your daughters
   He is poured out, not upon a        word of the prophet Joel and of        shall prophesy, and your young
few prophets, but upon all flesh!      other prophets as well. If then        men shall see visions, and your
   On all the servants and hand-       "this is that which was spoken by      old men shall dream dreams."
maidens of the Lord He is shed         the prophet Joel," it is the church       The church, through the out-
forth!                                 that received the fulfillment of       pouring of the Spirit, would in-
  Now all dwell on the                 the promise.                           deed put off her old garments of
mountain-tops of revelation. All         That church is not born on the       the law and of the shadows, and
prophesy. All see visions, and all     day of Pentecost, as some claim,       put on her beautiful garments of
dream dreams. All look - 0, to         and as others often thoughtlessly      grace and truth. But it was still
be sure, still as in a mirror - but    repeat. On the contrary, it was        the church.
nevertheless, at the glory of the      from the very beginning of the           Hence, it was but proper that
Lord, and are changed into the         world, and will be even unto the       the Spirit should be poured out
same image.                            end. It was in Paradise, and in        upon the church in Jerusalem.
  From the smallest to the great-      the ark, and in the loins of             And it was equally proper, and
est they now all know the Lord!        Abraham. For a time that church        inevitable, that the church on
  But then the mockers may well        is placed under the law and            which the Spirit was poured out
be filled with fear!                   assumes the form of Israel's na-       should not be found in the tem-
  For, then they are not hearing       tional existence and of the            ple, but in the upper room;
the idle prattle of drunken men,       Mosaic institution.                    should not consist of priests and
but the Word of God!                     And the line runs through.           scribes and Pharisees, but of the
  Then they stand condemned.             God does not forsake His             one hundred and twenty disciples
For then Jesus is the Christ,          people. He continues His cove-         of the Lord who, under the
Whom they crucified. Then He           nant. When the promise, long ex-       leadership of the apostles, waited
was raised from the dead. Then         pected, is realized, the Spirit is     for the promise! In them the
He is become Lord of all!              poured out upon the church. For        church is continued, and in all
  Then the day of the Lord is in-      it is true that the word by the        who through their word shall be
deed at hand!                          prophet Joel spoke of "all flesh";     called.
  But glory and blessing and           and it is equally true that this         The day of the Lord is at hand!
eternal salvation is come for all      looks for the fulfillment of the       Woe unto all who mock!
who look for, the promise!             promise far beyond the bound-            Rejoice, 0 Zion! Thy salvation
  0 glorious Spirit of promise!        aries of Israel's national ex-         is come!
             * * * * *                 istence; it embraces all the na-         Put on thy beautiful gar-
  This is that . . . .                 tions of the world. Yet,, even so,     ments! 0
  The Word spoken by the               the promise is for the church;
prophet is now fulfilled.
  And this means that on the
day of Pentecost it was upon the
church that the Spirit was poured      For new subscribers, it is
out.
                                       available for one year at half
                                       the subscription price!




                                                                                             The Standard Bearer  / 389


                                             The Creation
I    Editorial                               Record Literal

        All so-called progressive crea-         It is in this way that various            Nothing else - and I mean
     tionists and theistic evolutionists     theories of interpretation have            that in the absolute sense of the
     face the question.concerning  the       arisen and are maintained today,           word - nothing else, no science,
     historic@  of the creation record.      in order to accommodate the                no scientific theory, no rational-
     As a theist, the theistic evolution-    alleged scientific evidence of the         ism, no self-made doubts and
     ist feels bound to do so: the           theories of theistic evolution and         questions, no theological opin-
     Genesis record is a stumbling-          progressive creationism, which             ions, absolutely nothing outside
     block on his path. And as a crea-       requires millions and billions of          of Scripture may enter into the
     tionist the progressive creationist     years. But it is for this reason           making of the answer to this
     must somehow leave the impres-          that you can no longer be satis-           question: is the creation record to
     sion that he holds that the record      fied with the mere question                be understood literally or not?
     of Genesis is the record of real,       whether the creation record is             This is strictly a question of Scrip
     historical events, so that Gods         historical or the question- whether        ture and Scripture's meaning and
     work of creation actually took          a man maintains the "event                 Scripture's authority. Exegesis,
     place, is a fact of revelation. The     character" of creation. That               you know, is a question of the
     "event character" must somehow          allows room for evasion of the             meaning of the Word of God. Ex-
     be maintained. And to do this           issue. You must specify. You               egesis inquires into that meaning,
     they must find ways and means           must pin-point the issue. You              into the truth of the Word of
     of maintaining that the creation        must find out what they mean by            God. It presupposes that the
     record is not ordinary history,         "historical" and "event                    Word of God is understandable,
     not even ordinary sacred history,       character." And therefore you              that it is clear, perspicuous, and
     but history which is recorded in        must ask: is the creation record           that therefore the truth of that
     some unusual, strange way. They         literally historical? Is the creation      Word of God can be readily           1
     must keep the record of Genesis         record to be understood literally.         ascertained. Ultimately, exegesis
     as far as the language is con           or non-literally? (Actually the ex-        is therefore a matter of bowing
     cerned, but pour into it a content      pression "event character" as it           before the authority, the divine
     which harmonizes with their             occurs in report 36/44 of the              authority of that Word of God.
     evolutionist or progressivist           Christian Reformed Church, in                This must be stressed. It is of
     theories.                               my opinion, was itself already a           the essence in this discussion.
                                             compromise and was intended to             The decisive factor is not at all
                                             leave room for deviating                   what this or that scientist thinks,
                                             theories.)                                 or what he claims to have
                                               But this means, in the first             evidence for. It is not a question
                                             place, that the question concern-          of what someone claims to have
                                             ing the meaning of the Genesis             learned from Gods "other book,"
                                             record is strictly a .question  of .ex-    the book of creation. It is not a
                                             egesis.                                    question of what this or that
                                               This is of the utmost impor-             theologian thinks. Not at all! In
                                             tance.                                     coming to a conclusion on this

     390  / The Standard Bearer


issue it is of absolutely no benefit        rel with science's alleged dis-         tions, not theories which are im-
to engage in "name-dropping."               coveries and evidences, and that        posed upon Scripture. They must
The name of many a respected                to disagree with what scientists        not stand in the way of the
Reformed or Presbyterian                    say, for example, about the age         speech of Scripture. An interpre-
theologian, for example, m,ay be            of the world is simply to fly in        tation of Scripture must be the
cited in favor of the "old-earth            the face of facts and incontro-         one, necessary interpretation that
theory." And you can even quote             vertible evidence. (The Christian       is demanded by Scripture itself.
church fathers in favor of the              should not be so quick to bow             In the third place, exegesis
period theory. Neither is it a              before the idol of science and to       must be unbiased. Science likes
question of what this or that               compromise. If you investigate,         to speak of this being unbiased,
church has decided officially on            you will discover that "science"        unprepossessed, as a fundamental
the issue. Ultimately it is not             does not have a very good track         tenet of the scientific method.
even a question of what this or             record; in fact, it can change its      We may accept that in the good
that confession says. Also the              theories as easily as a man can         sense of the word. And we do ac-
confessions are .subject solely to          change his shirt.) But I want to        cept that also with application to
the authority of Scripture; and             emphasize that the exegesis of          exegesis. All exegesis of Scripture
they are of authority only as they          Holy Scripture is a science also. It    must be unbiased. The exegete
give expression to the truth of             is the practical science of the in-     must approach Scripture ab-
Holy Scripture.                             terpretation of Scripture. In fact,     solutely without any preposses-
  Let us remember this! This is a           if there was ever any science that      sion,  except the prepossession,
cardinal principle of our Re-               was exact and that requires exac-       the bias, of faith. He must put
formed faith. (cf. Article 7 of the         titude, it is the science of ex-        away everything except that
Belgic Confession of Faith)                 egesis. Exegesis takes place            faith. He must not attempt to say
  In the second place, I want to            according to certain definite           something of himself about that
stress that exegesis is an exact            rules. The most fundamental of          Word of God, but he must let the
science. There is much talk abaut           those rules is that Scripture is its    Word of God speak. The bias of
science and about scientific                own interpreter; Scripture itself       faith means that he is prepared
evidence and about the exactness            must interpret Scripture. That is a     to listen and to bow uncondition-
and fool-proofness of science in            very simple rule, but a very fun-       ally before the authority of Scrip
connection with this subject. And           damental rule. Scripture must           ture. (to be-continued) 0          HCH
the position is-sometimes taken             speak for itself. Our interpreta-
that one must be a fool to quar-            tions must indeed be interpreta-





                                            Supporting The
Guest Article
Kenneth Hanko                               Preachers.Of The Gospel

                                               The principle which Paul out-        God in the twentieth century
                                            lines in I Corinthians 9:7-14 is not    does not clearly understand nor
                                            a difficult one to understand: the      faithfully apply.
                                            Lord has ordained "that they              The principle can be restated
                                            which preach the gospel should          to make the point clear: the
Kenneth Hanko is a missionary-pastor of     live of the gospel." Yet it is a        church of God is under obligation
the Protestant Reformed Churches in Nor-    principle which the church of           to give an adequate living to
ristown, Pennsylvania.

                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer  / 391


those who preach the gospel in             Why, then, did he not use it?               sionary fully by themselves, and
and .for it. The Lord has ordained      Paul willingly gave up his right,              receive help only'as necessary.
it (v. 14). It is a principle of the    and did not use his power, "lest               Denominational support of mis-
law of God given in the O.T.:           we should hinder .the gospel of                sionaries and needy churches is
"Thou shalt not muzzle the              Christ." The preachers may (and                not necessarily wrong, but it
mouth of the ox that treadeth out       even ought to,. if circumstances               ought to be designated and
the corn." Those who waited at          require it) give up this right to              handled as help for the poor.
the altar were partakers of the         live of the gospel. But that must                 Now a few remarks.
altar. Jesus said (Luke 10:7) when      be left entirely to them. No one                  First, this does not mean that
He sent His disciples out to            may take the right from- them                  preachers ought always to quit
preach, "The labourer is worthy         against their wills., The church               preaching if the people of God
of his hire." That so many              may not refuse to support                      will not support them. In this
preachers of the gospel today           preachers. That is disobedience,               respect the preaching is different
derive their living from other             There is another .principle                 from other jobs. Generally speak-
work is due to the disobedience         stated here, though indirectly. It             ing, if employers fail to pay the
of the church to this clear or-         is that the.support of the                     wages due, employees have no
dinance of God.                         preacher belongs to those to                   further obligation to them. But
   But you will say to me, "What        whom he preaches. Therefore                    for preachers, the matter is not
about Paul? He made his living          Paul claims a right to a living,               quite so simple. The preaching of
from the trade of tent-making           not from the church at Antioch                 the gospel must continue. There-
rather than. from the preaching of      which sent him out, but from the               fore Jesus said to His disciples,
the gospel. Does not this mean          church at Corinth to which he                  "When I sent you without purse,
that what you have said is not          had preached. Therefore also                   and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye
true?"                                  when Jesus sent His disciples out              anything? And they said,
   No, it does not. It is clear that    to preach, He sent them out                    Nothing. Then said He unto
the example of Paul is not to be        empty-handed. He said (Luke                    them, But now, he that hath a
the pattern for the church today.       10:4-8):                                       purse, let him -take it, and like-
The pattern for the church today        Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes:     wise his scrip: and he that hath
is given' in I Corinthians 9:7-14.      and salute no man by the way. And into         no sword, let him sell his gar-
   That Paul made his living from       whatsoever house ye enter, first,say,          ment, and buy one." It is better
tent-making is, of course,              Peace be to this house. And if the son of
                                        peace be there, your peace shalt rest          for preachers to tolerate the dis-
undeniable. In fact it is in con-       upon it: if not, it shah turn to you again.    obedience of the church, than to
nection with this that Paul here        And in the same house remain, eating           let the preaching of the gospel
defends the right of preachers to       and drinking such things as they give: for     fail.
live of the gospel. He says in          the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not        Second, because preaching is,
verse 6, "Or I only and Barnabas,       from house to house. And into whatso-
                                        ever city ye enter, and they receive you,      generally speaking, a full-time
have we not power to forbear            eat such things as are set before you . , .    job, the wages which the church
working?" He does not refer to             This does not mean, however,                pays its preachers ought to be
the preaching of the gospel (he         that we may not help other                     adequate for the full support of
did not have power to forbear           people of God support those who                himself and his family. Some
preaching, v. 16), but to the           preach to them. But it does mean               churches seem to think that it is
other work which he and Bar-            that all such help is properly the             spiritually edifying for their
nabas were doing. So he adds            work'of benevolence. It is con-                preachers (though not for them-
(v. 12) "If others be partakers of      tributing to the relief of the .poor,          selves) to have to pinch pennies
this power over you, are not we         helping those who are not able,                in order to make ends meet.
rather? Nevertheless we have not        for good reason, to fulfill their              Because preaching is in many
used this power." -Therefore, in        obligations. Congregations ought,              ways different from other jobs,
spite of the fact that Paul was not     therefore, to do their best to sup-            we tend to think of it as different
earning his living from the             port their preachers by them-                  also in the matter of wages. But
preaching, he claims such power         selves. And only if they cannot                in verse 7 Paul deliberately com-
over the church.                        do it by themselves ought they to              pares it to other jobs, and says
                                        seek contributions from other                  that the same principle which ap
                                        churches. Likewise on the mis-                 plies in those jobs applies to
                                        sion fields: the people to whom                preaching. Just as the soldier, the
                                        the gospel is preached ought' to               farmer, and the'shepherd all earn
                                        do their best to.support the mis-              their livings from their work, so

392 / The Standard Bearer


the preacher ought to earn his            preacher who has a family will                 sown unto you spiritual things, is
living from his work. Churches            have different needs from the                  it a great thing if we shall reap
ought to pay an adequate wage.            one who does not, and the mis-                 your carnal things?`: It is impossi-
   But how are we to define ade-          sionary may have different needs               ble adequately to remunerate
quate? Is the preacher to be sup-         from the pastor of an established              faithful preachers of the gospel.
ported at a certain standard of           congregation. But the preacher                 The spiritual things which they
living no matter what the cost to         ought to be willing to receive his             minister to you are beyond price.
the congregation? No. I think that        living in any form that makes                  There is not here, as in many
a good rule of thumb here is that         adequate provision for himself                 other things, an approximately
the preacher be supported at ap-          and his family.                                equal exchange of goods and ser-
proximately the average standard            Fourth, in light of the above                vices. Those who hear the
of living among those to whom             and the present very common                    preaching get by far the better
he preaches. Thus the missionary          abuses of their power by                       part of the deal. If, then, we are
to a foreign country ought to live        "preachers" like Jim Bakker, it is             grudging about the preacher's
among the people to whom he               necessary to warn preachers                    wages or try to pinch pennies
preaches and at their level, lest         against greed and fleecing the                 when we consider his salary at
his wealth or poverty become a            sheep. Preachers must be ex-                   the annual congregational meet-
hindrance to the gospel and he            emplary, and must be willing to                ing, then surely God will "pinch
place too great (or too small) a          forego many things for the sake                pennies" in the administration of
financial burden on them.                 of the gospel. If they are not thus            His blessings to us.
  Third, the preacher does not            willing they are far from the ex-                 But this is not to say that we
have to receive money. If the             ample of the apostle Paul, and                 ought to attempt adequate
people prefer to give him room            from t.he example of Jesus who                 remuneration of the preachers.
and board in their own homes, or          had nowhere to lay his head.                   Besides being impossible, `it is not
if they can find some other way             Yet there is another side to the             what God requires. He requires
adequately to provide for his             picture. In verse 11 Paul makes a              that we give them an adequate
needs, that is acceptable. Jesus          comparison between spiritual                   living: no more and no less, and
urged His disciples to room and           things and carnal things. Spiritual            that we give it cheerfully. The
board with any worthy family              tb.ings are those things which                 contributions we are willing to
which would receive them. The             pertain to salvation, and carnal               make to the preachers of the
method of payment will differ             things are those which pertain to              gospel and to the various things
from preacher to preacher, de-            life on this earth. The spiritual              connected'with that work are a
pending on needs and cir-                 things are of far greater value.               measure of the love which we
cumstances. Obviously the                 And so Paul says, "If we have                  have for God and His church. Cl
                                                                                    -





 Walking In
 The Light
Herman C. Hanko                           Drunkenness (2)

                                            Alcohol abuse in this' countrv                 1. Atcohol is America's No. I, drug
                                          is appalling. Recently Ann           *         problem among youth. (In 1985, an
                                          Landers reported on some statis-               estimated 4.6 million adolescents, ages 14
                                                                                         through 17, experienced negative conse-
                                          tics put out by The National                   quences of alcohol use - arrest, involve-.
                                          Council of Alcoholism. They                    ment in an accident, impairment of
Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church    make for disturbing reading.                   health or job performance.)
History and New Testament in the Prot-                                                     2. Alcohol is twice as popular among
estant Reformed Seminary.                                                                college students as the next leading drug,

                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer  / 393


marijuana, and more than five times as           The Scriptures often speak of         Solomon calls wine a mocker and
popular as cocaine . . . .                     the effects of drunkenness.             strong drink a raging; and only
  4. The earlier in life a child starts us-                                            the fool is deceived by it (2O:l).
ing any dependence-producing drug, the         Drunken people stagger about
more likely he or she is to experience         (Job  12:25, Ps. 107:27) even             The Scriptures warn repeatedly
health problems, and go on to use other        sometimes in their own vomit (Is.       against this great sin and speak
drugs.                                         19:14). Not a very pretty picture       of terrible judgments which come
   5. About 10,000 young people aged 16        is painted by Isaiah in chapter         to them who commit it. "Woe un-
to 24 are killed each year in alcohol-                                                 to them that rise up early in the
related acciden'ts, including drowning,        287, 8: "But they also have erred
suicides, violent injuries, homicides and      through wine, and through strong        morning, that they may follow
fire injuries.                                 drink are out of the way; the           strong drink; that continue until
   6. Alcohol-related highway deaths are       priest and the prophet have erred       night, till wine inflame them!" (Is.
the No. 1. killer of 15- to 24year-olds.       through strong drink, they are          5: 11). "Woe unto them that are
   7. Nearly 100,000 IO- and 1 I-year-olds
reported getting drunk at least once a         swallowed up of wine, they are          mighty to drink wine, and men
week in 1985. , , .                            out of the way through strong           of strength to mingle strong
   10. A child will see alcohol consumed       drink; they-err in vision, they         drink' (5:22).
an average of 7.5,OOO times on TV before       stumble in judgment. For all              The New Testament especially
he or she is of legal drinking age.            tables are full of vomit and filthi-    contains such warnings. Jesus, in
   11. Drinking differences between boys                                               speaking of the calling of. God's
and girls are diminishing. (The number of      ness, so that there is no place
young female drinkers has been increas-        clear."                                 people to watch and pray lest the
ing more rapidly than the number of              Scripture often connects              coming of the Lord take them by
young male drinkers. Girls also tend now       adultery and fornication with           surprise, especially mentions
to experiment with a wider variety of          drunkenness as two sins which           drunkenness as a sin which can
substances , , . .)
   Drunkenness is not a modern                 often go hand in hand  - and  exi easily keep us from our calling:
                                                                                       "And take heed to yourselves,
problem. The Scriptures have a                 perience proves how true this is.
lot to say about it, and it is worth           Hosea (4:ll) speaks of God say-         lest at any time your hearts be
our while to examine some of                   ing to His people: "Whoredom            overcharged with surfeiting, and
                                                                                       drunkenness, and cares of this
these Scriptural passages.                     and wine and new wine take
   Scripture surely makes clear                away the heart." And in a partic-       life, and so that day come upon
                                                                                       you unawares" (Lu. 21:34).
that this sin of drunkenness was               ularly forceful passage, Solomon
common in the church through-                  says the`same thing, while                We have specific injunctions
                                                                                       against drunkenness in Scripture.
out her history. It was not the                describing the wretchedness of  :  - "And be not drunk with wine,
kind of sin one found exclusively              drunkenness: "Whop hath woe? :'
                                                                                       wherein is excess" (Eph. 5:18).
or even primarily in the world.                who hath sorrow? who hath con-
                                               tentions? who hath babbling? who        Paul includes drunkenness with
The prophet Amos points to how                                                         such works of the flesh as
common the sin was in Israel by                hath wounds without cause? who
                                                                                       adultery, fornication, idolatry,
castigating the rich women for                 hath redness of eyes? They that
                                                                                       and other terrible sins (Gal.
enticing their husbands to join                tarry long at the wine; they that
                                                                                       19-2 l), and emphatically states
them in drinking (4:1), and by                 go to seek mixed wine. Look not
                                                                                       that those who are guilty of such
condemning the ease and luxury                 thou upon the wine when it is
                                                                                       sins "shall not inherit the
of the people in the prosperous                red, when it giveth his colour in
                                                                                       kingdom of God." That ought to
days of Jeroboam II by accusing                the cup, when it moveth itself
                                                                                       give us pause. It is not possible
them, among other things, of                   aright. At the last it biteth like a
                                               serpent, and stingeth like an ad-       for a drunkard to inherit the
drinking wine in bowls (6:4).                                                          kingdom of God. He goes to hell.
   We all know of Noah's sin of                der. Thine eyes shall behold
                                                                                       Paul even tells the Corinthians (I
drunkenness, of Nabal's drunken-               strange women, and thine heart
                                               shall utter perverse things. Yea,       Cor. 5: 11) not to have anything
ness on the night when God killed                                                      to do with one who is called a
him (ISam. 25:36), how David                   thou shalt be as he that lieth
                                                                                       brother but who is a drunkard:
made Uriah drunk (II Sam. 11: 13),             down in the midst of the sea, or
                                                                                       "But now I have written unto
how drunkenness was common                     as he that lieth upon the top of a
                                                                                       you not to keep company, if any
in the palace even during David's              mast. They have stricken me,
                                                                                       man that is called a brother be a
rule (II Sam. 13:28), how drunk-               shalt thou say, and I was not
                                                                                       fornicator, or covetous, or an
enness characterized many of the               sick, they have beaten me, and I
                                                                                       idolater, or a railer, or a
kings of Israel (I Kings 16:9) and             felt it not: when shall I awake? I
                                                                                       drunkard, or an extortioner; with
foreign kings (I Kings 20:16), and             will seek it yet again:' (Prov.
                                                                                       such an one no not to eat."
of how it was common in Israel                 23:29-35).  No wonder that
as a whole (Is. 281).

394  I The Standard Bearer


  There are times when Scrin-              He refuses to drink deeply at the         This is an imposing list of texts
ture uses drunkenness in a  ^              cup of this worlds pleasures and       which deal with the sin of
metaphorical sense. It pictures            refuses to become entangled in         drunkenness. Scripture does not
Gods people as being sober,                the pursuit of earthly riches. His     take the matter lightly. It con-
while the world is drunk. The              goal is heaven, and sobriety is re-    demns the sin in the strongest
idea is that wickedness is a kind          quired to walk the road that           possible way. It bars drunkards
of spiritual drunkenness which             leads to his Father's house. I         from the kingdom of heaven. It
makes it impossible for a man to           Thess. 5:6-9 is particularly           refuses to allow God's people to
tell what is real and what is il-          graphic: "Therefore let us not         associate with them even if they
lusory. He staggers about falling          sleep, as do others: but let us        are called a brother. It compares
off the path, goes crashing                watch and be sober. For they           drunkenness with the spiritual
through the underbrush, stumbles           that sleep sleep in the night; and     character of the ungodly world
over rocks and finally plunges in-         they that be drunken are               which goes to hell. It is,
to hell. But the child of God is           drunken in the night. But let us,      therefore, a sin from which Gods
sober. He knows what reality is.           who are of the day, be sober,          people ought to flee with all the
He knows that this world with all          putting on the breastplate of faith    horror that comes from con-
its pleasures will pass away, that         and love; and for an helmet, the       templating an eternity under the
Christ is coming again, that he            hope of salvation. For God hath        fierce wrath of God. 0
must walk the straight, though             not appointed us- to wrath, but to
narrow, path that leads to glory.          obtain salvation by our Lord
                                           Jesus Christ."





  The Day                                 ~ The Awesome Shadow
 of Shadows
 john A. Heys                              of Coming Sins

                                             When Satan came to Eve with          of which we read in the time of
                                           his lie about the tree of the          Jesus' ministry. Demon posses-
                                           knowledge of good and evil, he         sion of that most subtle beast of
                                           revealed his hatred toward God.        the field was a shadow of the
                                           But he also made plain his hatred      demon possession that appeared
                                           toward man, who loved God and          in man about 4,000 years later.
                                           was created in His image. He           Satan got possession of the
                                           came to Eve in order to get to         tongue and vocal cords of the
                                           Adam. And he got Adam, in              most subtle beast of the field, the
                                           order to get man's love toward         earthly creature which, if today
                                           God taken away from the whole          man could find his body in its
                                           human race. Therefore he took          original form, would by the
                                           possession of the mouth and            evolutionists, and so-called
                                           voicebox of the serpent, in order      theistic evolutionists, be called
                                           to get into man's heart and mind.      the missing link. Satan had
                                             Here already we had the              already gotten a host of the
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in     shadow of the demon possession         angels to hate God and rebel
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer I395


against Him. Now, through this             The word theistic comes from.         would be able to decide for
creature that was made closest to        the Greek word Theos which              ourselves what is good and what
man, Satan strives to make man           means God. And to be theistic           is evil. God would now have to
after his own defiled nature and         you have to agree with God and          listen to us. In fact, and do not
image, so that man would hate            reject everything that Satan and        overlook this fact, Satan made
God and turn away from Him.              the unbelievers -say about Christ,.     Adam and Eve believe that God
   We ought, therefore, to take          and about how He realized this          is a liar! He, that is God, was
seriously into consideration the         creation. You just cannot be            afraid of man and'threatened him
fact that Satan is still today striv-    theistic and evolutionistic at the      with death, if he ate of that fruit,
ing to get us to eat his lie, that it    same time. To be theistic you           so that-He-would continue to be
is good to do what God calls evil.       have to agree one hundred per-          God alone. And today Satan
That is really what Adam  and.           cent with God in all that He says,      through men is preaching the lie
Eve ate. They ate Satan's lie that       and reject all the lies of Satan, as    about creation and the way it all
turns man in hatred toward God.          he speaks through the atheists.         came into being. He is trying to
And remember that you cannot             You cannot agree with God and           get men to listen to him; rather
unite  and, join Satan's atheistic       with Satan .in anything that per-       than to listen to God, about how.
thinking with what God says in           tains to God.                           man came into being. He dares
His word. Therefore "theistic              And there are today many              to call God's words fiction rather
evolution" is only a so-called           more false doctrines which Satan        than fact! But there is no proof in
theistic doctrine. Actually, as will     speaks through men. What Satan          Scripture that this is not fact and
be pointed out, this so-called           did to Adam through Eve and the         is fiction. No, theistic evolution
theistic evolution is atheistic          serpent, he is still doing to           gets that idea from Satan through
evolution.                               mankind today. In the world to-         the atheists who are evolu-
   If we change God's words in           day he is using an instrument           tionists!
Genesis l-l 1, because unbelievers       closer to man than the one he             And God revealed and recorded
who are atheists do so, how can          used initially upon man. In the         to us this attack of Satan upon
we accept what God says in               garden of Eden he used the ser-         mankind, so that we would see
Isaiah 7:14 and in Luke 2:26-37          pent, until he got hold of Eve's        this shadow of the coming sins -
as fact and not fiction? Twist           heart and mind. Then he used            sins coming from the day Adam
Genesis l-l 1 and you have to            Eve to get hold of Adam. And            and Eve sinned, but coming in
twist the birth of Christ as well. If    now he uses many men in the.            even more dreadful and devilish
it took billions of years for God        church world to-.try to get as          form in the days ahead of us -
to bring forth man out of the            many as he can to call good             that the antichrist and his
animal world, how can we                 what God calls evil.                    followers will commit. It is then
believe that He brought forth              We:do well, therefore, in these       our calling to instruct our
Christ into being. through a virgin      last days to be on our guard. For       children and grandchildren in the
birth,. and that only nine months        Satan's crafty, subtle ways are         days to come. The trend and
after conception? If it took             even more clever and dangerous          tendency today, to avoid expos-
billions of years for the all-wise       today. Today also he can preach         ing false doctrines, only reveals
and almighty God to bring men            the lie from pulpits in the             how hard Satan is working now,
into being, how can we, and why          churches, and over the radio and        as well as in the garden of Eden,
do we want to, say that He               through the television sets. He         to get our covenant seed to eat
brought Christ into our flesh            makes prolific use of the printing      of the fruit of his tree of the
without conception through a             press and gets songs written with       belief: that evil is good.
man? No, the so-called theistic          very rich harmony and very                Let us not act as though Satan
evolutionist wants to take the           pleasing melodies, to get us to         is taking a vacation and now has
words Satan gave to the                  eat (and sing) the fruit of his tree    less hatred against God. That he
unbelievers, rather than the             of knowledge of evil that he calls      wants men to insist upon theistic
words God gave through the               good.                                   evolution is one of his crafty
believers.                                 Remember that Satan said that         ways of trying to get us and our
                                         man would be like God, knowing.         children to turn from God, and
                                         good and evil, if he walked in          decide for ourselves what is good
                                         rebellion against God. Get that!        and evil. Satan used God's name
                                         By sinning, we would become             and did not tell Eve that there is
                                         like God, and God would have to         no God. So-called theistic evolu-
                                         listen to.,us, not we to Him. We        tion also uses God's name and


396 / The Standard Bearer


does not approach you merely               Through the ages all the saints      the name God, but calls himself
with the unbeliever's atheistic         took Genesis l-11 as fact and not       God.
evolution. Yes, Satan is very,          fiction. They were theists not            Are we going to listen to God
very active today and doing all         atheists:But  now, has Satan's lie      or to Satan? As we read in Daniel
he can to.produce  the antichrist       been proven to be a truth? Have         12:4, in the coming days man
who will call himself God, II           we become like God by our               shall "run to and fro" - and in-
Thessalonians 2:4. In that day of       eating of the forbidden fruit, so       deed he has done so in his space
the antichrist we will-see the          that now we can correctly find'         flights and landing on the moon
climax of this lie of Satan to `Eve.    fault with what God said and            - and "knowledge shall be in-
Adam and Eve as led by Satan            wrote through men? Or is Satan          creased." Man does today under-
strove to be like God. The anti-        at work in the church of Christ         stand more of the creation in
christ will boldly claim to be          and striving to get us to reject        which God placed him. Not only
God. Adam and Eve immediately:          the whole word of God? If we            did he discover the Americas and
realized that-they had not              have been deceived by Satan in-         the undeniable fact that the earth
become gods. The antichrist will        to believing that Genesis l-11 is       is a round globe. He has learned
loudly-proclaim the lie that he is      fiction, can we stop there? Should      to know chemicals and elec-
God. And today man, with all his        we not go on to making the com-         tronics, how to make automobiles
inventions and achievements             ing of His Son into our flesh as        and other machines, radios, tele-
with the things God created, is         fiction, and agree with the             vision sets and computers, to
more and more fully believing           godless Jews who crucified Him          mention only a few items that
Satan's lie that- man is God. It        for making such a bold claim that       reveal his knowledge far above
begins to look more and more .as        He is the Son of God? Have `we          what men had in the Old Testa-
though we do not need God. And          not a shadow here in the garden         ment dispensation. But the more
man today can seem to do so             of Eden of Satan's lie that man         he learns about God's creation,
much more in six thousand years         will elevate himself, by sin, to the    the more he rules God out of it.
than God could do in billions of        point where he can tell God that        And in the church world today
years, if so-called theistic evolu-     He has given us the wrong words         Satan has succeeded in getting
tion is the truth.                      about His amazing creation of           some to listen to that lie that
  Let us say for argument's sake        the universe and that which it          looks at this whole world apart
that the first eleven chapters of       contains? Can we be sure that           from God. How can we call that
Genesis are fiction rather than         this lie of atheistic rather than       theistic evolution? Yes, that
fact. What are we going to do           theistic evolution will not pro-        philosophy still says that God
then with Exodus 20? Everything         duce and bring forth claims that        created all things. Satan is careful
from Genesis 12 through Exodus          more passages of Holy Writ ire          in the church to use God's name.
20:7 is fact; but verses 8-11 are       fiction?                                As pointed out, Satan did that,to
fiction? There in the fourth com-         If, ,when God speaks :of days in      Eve and through her to Adam.
mandment of His law God says            regard to the work `which He per-       But receiving and holding on to
that He created the heavens and         forms, He means millions of             the atheist's explanation of crea-
the .earfh and ail' that in them is     years, how can' we be sure that it-     tion is listening to Satan as he
in six days (not periods) and           is a fact that Jesus was in His         speaks through men. It is twisting
rested the seventh day. Well,           grave only three days and is            God's words to let Satan's ser-
now, He worked for millions of          risen? If we are going to listen to     vants give us "knowledge and
years and then rested one million,      the unbelievers about what God          understanding" of the world in
years? God, said it by using the        did in the beginning, rather than       which God placed us. And you
very same word for day in both          listen to God, where are we go-         can be sure that there are more
instances, did He not? What is          ing to stop? Look at all the sin        sins coming into the church in
more, He had `already said that         that came into the world from           the day of the antichrist, because
we must hallow one day in the           the day that Adam and Eve               this approach to Scripture opens
week, and He uses the same              sinned against God. It brought          the door to more work of Satan.
word as He used to point out that       forth the cross of Christ, as we          Satan got Adam and Eve to
He created the world. So we             pointed out last time. And it also      break God's law by getting them
must keep a billion years holy?         brought~ forth this so-called           to eat of the forbidden fruit.
How can we when the number of           theistic evolution, which will          God's law said that they might
our days is threescore and ten, or      bring forth more twistings of           not. Satan got them to believe
fourscore by reason, of strength?       God's word and prepare the way          that they not only might, but that
                                        for the antichrist, who still uses      they would improve their lot that

                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  /  397


way. And today Satan has gotten                  Rather than to minimize these        glory. They present Him as
so-called theistic evolutionists to           present day attacks of Satan            writing what nowhere else  api
break God's law. And through                  upon the truth, we had better op-       pears in His .word. The simple
that lie he is going to get more              pose them with all our strength.        fact which God presents to us in
lawlessness into the church, and              Let us fight the atheists and their     Holy Writ is that nowhere after
not more glory and praise for the             evolution rather than let them,         Genesis l-l 1 does He even sug-
all-wise and almighty God, Who                by what arose in the minds of           gest that He called all creation in-
only had to speak and call to get             unbelievers, pump that lie into         to being over billions of years.
done what He wanted. And if we                the coming generations. And be          This lie you find only on the lips
break that fourth commandment                 careful not to call Jesus a liar. In    of those under Satan's power.
and say that part of it is f.iction,          Matthew 24:38 and Luke 17: 17           Believe this lie that Satan gave to
can we be sure that the breaking              He speaks of the day that Noah          unbelievers, and you agree with
of more of these ten command-                 entered into the ark. If Genesis        Satan that man, yea, that the
ments will not follow? A depar-                l-11 is fiction and not fact, then     unbelievers, .know what is good
ture from the truth, a denial of              Jesus preached the lie. He              and what is evil, and can express
what GOD says, will always lead               presented it as a fact. He made         it more clearly.than God did. The
to a denial of Him. And even as               absolutely no suggestion even           so-called theistic evolutionist does
Satan's clever attack upon Adam               that this was fiction or a parable.     use God's name. But maintaining
and Evewas a shadow of what                      It is far less dangerous to have     a philosophy. that Satan worked
unbelievers did since that day, so            our children exposed to evolution       into the hearts and minds of
his present day attacks upon                  by atheists than by so-called           unbelievers reveals how
God's word are shadows of more                theistic evolutionists. These  so-      dangerous this false doctrine is.
atheistic sins that are around the            called theistic evolutionists use       Here, too, we have a shadow of
c o r n e r .                                 and introduce God's name into           coming heresies and sins. Cl
                                              this heresy and deny Him His




                                              Hard  Questions  For.  Young  People:
 The Strength                                 "should I Begin,
o f   Y o u t h                               T o   S m o k e ? "
Barrett 1. Critters





Barrett L. Critters is pastor of the Prot-
estant Reformed Church of Byron Center,
M i c h i g a n .

398  /  The Standard Bearer


   I am writing to the young           versation with them. The elderly         The reason most of you smoke
people only. All of the older folks    man was the former dean of the         now, if you do, or smoke only
ought just to turn to the next         University Medical School- at          occasionally, is  not  .because  it
page; unless, of course, they are      Loma Linda Hospital, and was           was enjoyable to inhale smoke
considering taking. up smoking.        very interested in learning about,     the first time. Who doesn't
   You young people might think        our private schools and churches'      remember the first times he/she:
that it is a little presumptuous to    catechism instruction. To make a       inhaled too much smoke and
write about smoking. For one           long story short, along with giv-      became green at the gills and
thing, there are many who are          ing us a gift subscription to two      almost vomited? I surely do. Is
not going to like to see this arti-    of his church's magazines              that pleasant? The first times we
cle in print. For another, you         (Seventh Day Adventist), he gave       smoke are to show others that
may have seen me with a smoke          me a couple of the many books          we can, or to show that we dare
in my hand a time or two (we'll        he had written. The title of one       do something that is not allowed
talk about that later). Besides,       of the books was We've Come A          by parents or teachers. But it
there has never yet, in the            Long Way, Maybe - a play on            doesn't take too long before
history of this magazine, been an      words you probably don't need          that's about all we can think
article critical of cigarette smok-    explained. Reading this book           about. Why? Because our body
ing (at least not that shows itself    renewed in me the conviction           has actually come to need a
in .the index). The only article I     that no Christian young person         cigarette. You are on your way
could find was a short defense of      ought to smoke.                        to being addicted. How do you
it. Part of the reason for this        TWO MAIN REASONS                       know that you won't?
silence is- that before the health       I believe that there are two           Do you understand the sin of
dangers of smoking were well-          main reasons why a Christian           being addicted to a drug -
known, seminary students (who          young person should. not begin to      wilfully? Do you understand what
later became the major contribu-       smoke. For those who are con-          you act like when you are ad-
tors to these pages) were almost       cerned with principles, I believe      dicted? You will do almost any-
encouraged  to smoke.. For the         these reason have to do with           thing for a smoke. You can think
most, men were. "out of it" if         principles.                            of almost nothing else when you
they did not contribute to the           First, smoking is addictive.         need a "fix." If it doesn't actually
cloud of smoke above the table           1 put this first, because we are     violate it, this comes very close
at synod and classis:                  answering the question, ."Should  I    to violation of the first command-
  So why write now? I have a           begin to smoke?" Whether or not        ment. No child of God -may
couple of reasons for my pre-          smoking in itself is physically        willingly put himself in that posi-
sumption. In the first place,          harmful, it is addictive. The          tion that he is physically addicted
although 1 have had only a few.        chemicals in cigarettes work in        to a drug. Beginning to smoke
requests to write on something         such a way that after a while you      puts one in the risk of becoming
specific, all of them have been        need them to function even nor-        addicted to nicotine.
requests to write about smoking        mally. They are drugs.                   I sympathize with the peer
- from your parents concerned            If you would ask all the             pressure you face. But wouldn't it
about .your health. The second         smokers that you know why they         be better to try to handle the.
reason is the overwhelming             don't quit smoking, a good guess       peer pressure now, then try to
evidence from science that smok-       is that about 90% of them would        break a very difficult habit later?
ing is physically dangerous. As a      tell you that they have tried,' but      Second, smoking is a viola-
pastor, I have a care for the          find it almost impossible to stop.     tion of the sixth command-
health of your body as well as         The other 10% are probably             ment.
your soul.                             either not telling the whole truth,      Although I think most of us
  On our family's vacation last        or have convinced themselves           know what smoking does, I wish
summer, we were camping at             that they are actually happy with      1 had the space to show you all
about 8,000 feet in the beautiful      their habit. But I have a hard         the evidence - so plain and con-
San Bernardino Mountains in            time believing that anyone is tru-     vincing - that the warnings on
southern California. One of the        ly happy with this habit. This is      the sides of the packages are not
few other campers in the camp-         why some will not be completely        a joke. Cigarettes are unarguably
ground was an old couple in a          honest with you when you ask           linked with lung cancer (have
travel trailer. As we walked past      them about smoking - because           you ever seen someone dying of
their picnic table where they          they are in the grips of the habit.    lung cancer?), with emphysema
were sitting we struck up a con-                                              (have you ever seen anyone try

                                                                                              The Standard Bearer I.399


to LIVE with emphysema?), heart        Our life, in the service of God, is       Besides, the Scriptures give us
disease, strokes, and many, many       a more productive life when we         guidelines for exercising our
more devastating health prob-          are healthy. But the more impor-       Christian liberty. Three times, in I
lems - most of which lead to           tant reason is that our body is        Corinthians, Paul says "all things
this: death. How does a Christian      God's temple, in which He dwells       are lawful" (this is Christian liber-
feel who is dying of a disease         with His Holy Spirit. In another       ty). In each case he quickly adds,
brought on by something he did         connection, Paul asks, "Shall we       as it were, "But wait a moment.
wilfully?                              unite our body, which is a             There is something more that
   "Worldwide more than 2              member of Christ's, with a             needs to be said about the liber-
million smokers die annually           harlot? God forbid!" (I Corin-         ty." Each of these "buts" which
from heart disease, lung cancer,       thians 6:15). Shall we then, take      Paul adds limits Christian liberty.
and emphysema caused by their          that same body, which is a             We must always first ask the
addiction,"  (Ministry,  March,        member of Christ's body, and a         questions, "Is it expedient?" That
1988, page 25). Two million!! The      temple of the Holy Spirit, and         is, "Is it profitable, helpful,
same magazine says that "non-          wilfully subject it to cancer, lung    beneficial?" (see chapter 6: 12;
smoking wives of smoking hus-          disease, emphysema, and the            10:23). "Does it edify?" That is,
bands have two to three times          rest? Dare we use any less             "Does it build up my neighbor?"
the normal incidence of lung           forceful language than Paul did?       (chapter 10:23). And, "Does it
cancer. Children living in homes         There are other reasons we           bring me into bondage?' (chapter
in which one or both parents           ought not to begin to smoke.           6:12). These are weighty con-
smoke have more upper                  Some that my father told me            siderations.
respiratory infections and miss        years ago still stick with me: It's      Expediency. Expediency and
more school days from sickness.        a waste of money (figure it out        edification are very similar. Is it
Most tragically affected is the un-    sometime). It's dirty (just look at    beneficial? Does my smoking
born fetus. With nicotine restrict-    the ash tray in the car, or all the    profit me? Does it build up my
ing blood flow, and carbon             butts lying around on the church.      neighbor and me? Or worse, does
monoxide inactivating red blood        sidewalks or in the planters). It      my smoking offend others? By of-
cells, these victims are born          stinks (did you ever kiss someone      fense, I don't mean that the
smaller and have a higher prob-        who smokes?).                          neighbor becomes angry with my
ability of contracting disease."       WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIAN                   smoking. That is part of offense.
You young girls who are begin-         LIBERTY?                               (God is even offended by sin).
ning to smoke, please remember           Under "Christian liberty" a          But I am referring to the offense
that smoking is addictive, and         child of God sometimes practices       that causes others to stumble. If I
that it does this to you and your      those things that the Bible does       smoke, then others see my smok-
children. Just tonight on NBC's        not say plainly we may not do.         ing and justify it for themselves.
national news, it was reported         There are some who appeal to           This is the worst offense possible.
that women who smoke have a            Christian liberty to argue in.favor    God was angry with the wicked
ten times greater chance of            of smoking. The reasoning goes         kings of Israel, not mainly
stroke than women who don't.           like this: "The Bible says nothing     because they did not worship
  There is enough good, scienti-       about smoking. Therefore, you          Him, but because they taught the
fic evidence to prove even to the      may not lay down a law for me          people to worship idols. This is
most doubtful skeptic that regular     that says I may not smoke. I will      offense.
smoking (whether you say you           smoke under Christian liberty."          Which brings up my own
inhale or not) is damaging to            But we must be honest here..         smoking. (I wish I could get away
your body.                             No one can deny that the Bible         without this!) Even if I can smoke
  Besides forbidding us to             - in the sixth commandment -           moderately - I only smoke
murder others, God's will for us       prohibits wilfully harming one's       "OP's" (other people's) and only
in the sixth commandment is that       self, which takes smoking out of       about one per week; and even if
we not harm our own body. The          the realm of Christian liberty, in-    I don't inhale all the smoke -
reason we want to obey God's           to an area about which God             this is a defense others use; don't
call not to harm our body is not,      speaks directly.                       [ still have to reckon with Paul's
first  of all, that we may live a                                             warning about Christian liberty in
longer, happier life, (along with                                             [ Corinthians? "All things are
all the other reasons non-                                                    lawful. But do they edify my
Christians would convince you                                                 neighbor? Are they expedient?
not to smoke). This is part of it.                                            3r does my action cause another

400 / The Standard Bearer


in the church to fall into this             ARE YOU THANKFUL?                          I appeal first of all to your
p r a c t i c e ? "                            1 appeal, friends, not to your       sense of love to God. Do you
   Bondage. "Does it bring me in-           sense of fear. I do that, too. I        love Him, Who died for you? I
to bondage?" Pauls asks. .Does              hope you are afraid to get lung         know you do. Do you love Him
smoking so work on a person                 cancer or emphysema or suffer           Who suffered for you? I know
that he becomes enslaved to it?             stroke. I hope you are afraid of        you do. Are you thankful for the
Can anyone deny that- smoking. is           God's displeasure with those who        salvation you already have? Then
addictive? We shall not lead our            disobey Him. But these are not          "glorify God in your body, and in
own person into bondage. This               the first reasons a Christian does      your spirit, which are God's" (1
drug shall not reign over me! I             not begin to smoke.                     Corinthians 6:20.) 0
shall not be brought under the
power of any!





 Bible Study                                J OShua  - Receiving The
 Guide                         I
jason  1.  Kortering                        Promised Land (3)

  The first main -division in the           of their allegiance, even express       other side of Jordan. She asked
Book of Joshua covers, chapters             their willingness to put to death       them to show her mercy by sav-
l:l-12:24, and describes the en-            any who will not hearken to his         ing her and her family alive.
trance of Israel into the land of           words. They express the. desire         They agree that if she keep still
Canaan and the conquest of all              that Jehovah God be present             and bind the scarlet line in the
its parts. We continue this outline         with Joshua as He was with              window and have all the rela-
from 1:9.                                   Moses  (1:10-l@. Joshua secretly        tives in her house when they
  Joshua instructs the officers to          sends out two spies to enter            return, she and they shall be
tell the people to prepare food,            Jericho and view the land. They         spared. If not, they are free of
for they will cross the Jordan in           enter the harlot Rahab's house          their oath. The spies left, spent
three days. He also r.eminds the            and soon. the messengers of the         three days in the mountains until
men of Reuben, Gad, and half the            king of Jericho come and order          their pursuers returned to the city,
tribe of Manasseh to fulfill their          Rahab to bring forth the men            and then returned to Joshua.
promise to go with the people               who are accused of being spies.         Their testimony was, "Truly, the
over the Jordan to help the                   Rahab had hid the spies on the        Lord hath delivered into our
others possess their place in the           roof among the stalks of flax. She      hands all the land; for even all
land. All the men assure Joshua             told the messengers that there          the inhabitants of the country do
                                            had been men present, but that          faint because of us," (2:1-24).
                                            they left when it was dark, just        Joshua rose early on the third
                                            prior to the closing of the gate.       day and led Israel from Shittim to
                                            They pursued after them in vain.        the edge of the Jordan. The
                                            In the meanwhile,  ,Rahab ex-           people are'instructed to sanctify
                                            presses her faith in Jehovah by         themselves this day and on the
                                            telling the spies of the terror that    morrow to follow the ark, leav-               -
                                            is fallen upon the city when they       ing some distance between them
Jason L. Kortering is past& of the Prot-
estant Reformed Church of Grandville,       heard of the great works of             when they see it pass before
Michigan.                                   Jehovah in Egypt and on the             them. The next day Jehovah

                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer / 401


     assures Joshua that He will            plains of Jericho (5:10, 11). Men-     Joshua pronounces a curse upon
     magnify him in the sight of the        tion is made that manna ceased,        any man who will rebuild'this
     people for the wonder He will          since they had the old.corn of         city. Rahab and her family are
     do. The people are called to the       the land for food (5:12). The cap-     taken into the congregation of
     edge of the river and instructed       tain of the Lord's host appears to     Israel (6: l-27).
     that when the feet of the priests      Joshua. At first Joshua is afraid,        During the conquest of Jericho,
     that bear the ark touch the            not knowing if he is an enemy or       Achan of the tribe of Judah stole
     waters of the Jordanl it will part     not. He assures Joshua that He is      of the accursed thing, and Gods
     and form a wall and they will          come to serve as captain, and          anger was kindled against Israel.
     cross on dry land. The priests         thereupon instructs Joshua to          This became evident when Israel
     which carry the ark lead the way       take his shoe from off his foot for    attempted to take the city of Ai.
     into the midst of the river and        the place is holy (5:13-15). Now       After spies were sent out to view
     stand there as all the people pass     Jehovah instructs Joshua in the        the city and the report came
     safely over (3:1-17). A memorial       method whereby they will take          back that it could easily be taken
     is erected as God had instructed.      Jericho. They are to compass the       with about two or three thousand
     According to that divine instruc-      city once each day for six days.       men of war, Joshua directed
     tion, one man from each tribe          At the head of this parade, seven      them to take the city, but instead
     selected a large stone from the        priests are to carry trumpets of       they fled before the army of Ai,
     area in the river where the            rams' horns as they walk ahead         and thirty-six men of Israel were
     priests stood holding the ark, car-    of the ark of the covenant,            killed. Joshua was overcome with
     ried these stones to the place of      preceded and followed by the           fear. He'and the elders put dust
     encampment in Gilgal, and              men of war. On the seventh day         on their heads and rent their
     placed them on a pile for a            they are to encircle the city          clothes before Jehovah. Joshua
     reminder of what God had done.         seven times. After the seventh         pleaded for the people, for this
     They are specifically instructed to    time, the priests are to give a        will give the enemy opportunity
     use the occasion of questioning        long blast from-the trumpets and       to rejoice. Jehovah told Joshua to
     children to tell them the great        the people are to shout, and the       arise. Israel has sinned, for the
     wonders which God had done. In         walls of the city will fall down       accursed thing of Jericho ,has
,    addition, twelve stones are also ,     flat. Each soldier must then go        been stolen. God instructed
     piled in the midst of the river        straight before him into the city      Joshua to call the people
     where the priests stood. When          and take it. This knowledge            together by tribes and cast the
     everything is finished, and all the    Joshua now passed on to the            lot to determine who has done
     people passed over, including the      people. On ,each of the succeed-       this, for that person must be
     men of Reuben, Gad, and half           ing six days they carry out this       burnt with fire. The next day,
     tribe of Manasseh, as well as an       strange parade about the city of       they assembled before Joshua.
     army of 40,000 men ready for           Jericho, the sound of the              The tribe of Judah was taken by
     battle, Jehovah instructed Joshua      trumpets blasting each day. On         lot. The family of the Zarhites
     to command the priests to come         the seventh day this takes place       was taken, and among them Zab-
     out of the river. When the soles       seven times. At the seventh time       di was exposed, and finally
     of their feet touched the dry          the priests blew with their            Achan of that family. Achan ad-
     land, the waters returned (4:1-24).    trumpets, the people shouted and       mitted that he had taken a good-
        Mention is-made of the fear         the walls fell down flat. Joshua       ly Babylonish garment, 20'0
     (their heart melted) of the            had instructed the people that         shekels of silver and a 50-shekel-
     Amorites and the kings of Ca-          with the exception of Rahab the        weight wedge of gold. These
     naan when they heard of this           harlot and her family, all the in-     were buried in the midst of his
     miraculous crossing (5: 1). At         habitants and possessions of the       tent and were uncovered and
     Gilgal, God instructed Joshua to       city  .had to be destroyed, it was     brought to Joshua. Achan, his
     renew the rite of circumcision.        accursed of God. The soldiers          family, all his possessions were
     During the forty years of wilder-      killed all the people and animals      then taken to the valley of Achor
     ness sojourn, the old generation       and burnt the city with fire. Only     and stoned and burned with fire.
     died off and they had not circum-      the silver and gold and vessels of     A heap of stones testifies of
     cised the new generation which         brass and iron they put into the       Jehovah's fierce anger against all
     was born. In this way the              treasury of the house of the Lord.     evil in Israel (7:1-26). Eyes are
     reproach of Egypt was rolled                                                  now set upon Ai once again. The
     away (5:2-g). Also at this time                                               instructions are clearly given: in
     they enjoyed the passover in the                                              this instance they are to kill all


     402  / The Standard Bearer    I


the inhabitants, only they may          God. He also publicly read the         this oath with them. They con-
keep the cattle and spoil for           law which Joshua had received          sulted among each other and
themselves. Now Joshua with the         from Moses and rehearsed them          agreed that they could not now
whole army, marched toward Ai.          all in the ears of the people as       kill them, after they had made
He assigned thirty thousand to lie      they stood before Ebal and             this oath. Rather, they would
in ambush against the city while        Gerizim, as Moses had instructed       make them their servants,
he took about five thousand with        him (8: l-35).                         hewers of wood and drawers of.
him and approached the gate.              The kings of Canaan now con-         water unto all the congregation.
They pretended that they were           federated together to fight Israel.    this news Joshua publicly con-
afraid once again,. and ran away.       The exceptions to this were the        veyed to them, and they excused
Out of the city poured the armies       inhabitants of Gibeon  who sued        their deception as being
of Ai, and thus allowed those           for peace with Israel. They did        motivated by fear for survival;
who lay'in ambush to enter the          this by deception. They placed         but that they were satisfied to be
city. They did this when they           old sacks upon their asses and         Israel's servants (9: l-27). Apart
saw Joshua raise his spear as a         took old wine bottles, old shoes       from Gibeon,  five other kings
pre-arranged sign. The men of Ai        and garments, and dry and              now join forces against Israel: the
looked back and saw the smoke           moldy bread to make it look as if      kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jar-
of the city raise heavenward.           they traveled many miles. They         muth, Lachish, Eglon prepare for
Joshua and his men saw this as          made a big display of how far          battle against Gibeon. Gibeon
well. They stopped and turned           they traveled and how they             quickly calls Israel for help. The
against the men of Ai, who by           heard about the great wonders          Lord discomfited them and slew
now were trapped between the            the God of Israel did in Egypt         them, and as they fled, huge hail-
forces.of Israel on either side.        and to Sihon and Og the kings to       stones killed even more. While
The army of Israel slew all the         the east. They offered to be their     Israel pursued them, the sun
men of Ai in. the field and all the     servants if they would spare their     stood still and there was a great
inhabitants of the city, about          lives. Without consulting the          slaughter. Subsequently, the five
12,000 men and women. The city          Lord, Joshua and the people            kings which fled and hid in a
was burned with fire, the king he       made a league with them. Later         cave were taken out. The princes
hanged on a tree and they buried        they learned that they were            put their feet on their necks
his corpse beneath a heap of            neighbors, close by them. The          while Joshua killed them. Their
stones. The cattle and spoil the        congregation was dismayed that         bodies were hanged on trees for
people took for themselves. After       Joshua and the princes had made        a day and then buried under
this Joshua built an altar of stone                                            stones in the cave (lO:l-27). Cl
and offered burnt offerings to



                                        The Two Natures of
                                        Christ: ,The Union of' the
Taking t-ileed ~0'. Human and Divine.
The Doctrine
Ronald t-l. Hanko                       N a t u r e s

                                        1. Introduction.                       man, but that He is at one and
Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of i&n@         The mystery of the incarnation       the same time both of these. This
Protestant Reformed Church, Hbuston,    is not so much that our Lord           is, in the final analysis, a mystery
Texas.                                  Jesus Christ is true God or true       as great as the mystery of the

                                                                                               The Standard Bearer  / 403


      trinity. Scripture itself reminds us     God and man in one Person can                And he adds:
      of this by calling the truth that        He be our Immanuel, God with                    I was long ago made aware, and in-
      God is come in the flesh the             us, the fulfillment of the covenant          deed on more than one occasion, that
      beginning of the "great mystery          of grace and of all the promises             those who contend pertinaciously about
      of godliness" (I Tim. 3:16).             of God to us. As the Athanasian              words are tainted with some hidden
         That the incarnation is a             Creed, another early creed,                  poison; and, therefore, that it is more ex-
                                                                                            pedient to provoke them purposely (by
      mystery means that,it is not             reminds us: "Furthermore it is               the use of such words, R.H.), than to
      something which can be fully ex-         necessary to everlasting salva-              court their favor by speaking obscurely
      plained or logically analyzed, but      tion, that he (who would be                   (Institutes, L xiii, 5).
      a matter of faith and spiritual dis-    saved) also believe rightly the in-              This warning is timely, for
     cernment. As one author has              carnation of our Lord Jesus                   there are those again today who
     said, the incarnation is not a           Christ."                                      wish to do away with the ter-
     problem which we must or can             2. The terminology.                           minology that has been used in
     solve, but a wonderful fact which           In defending this doctrine, the            connection with these doctrines
     we gratefully confess in the way         church has adopted a certain ter-             or change its use on the grounds
     God Himself presents it to us in         minology to define what she                   that it is not Biblical. Cornelius
     His Word (H. Bavinck, Our                believes as exactly as possible,              Van Til, a recent Presbyterian
     Reasonable Faith, chapter 16).           but she has never pretended that~             theologian and writer is a good
     We must remember this if we are          such dogmatic formulations are a              example. He uses the word per-
     to avoid idle and profitless             complete or exhaustive explana-               son in a new and different sense
     speculation in speaking of this          tion of the mystery of God mani-              when he says that there is only
     truth.                                   fest in the flesh. This terminology           one Person in the trinity, while at
        The central question here has         includes such words as person,                the same time expressing his
     never really been whether there          subsistence (a synonym for per-               faith in the full divinity of the
     is a union between the two               son), and nature, none of which               Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is
     natures of Christ, but how those         are to be found in Scripture itself.          difficult to ascertain what he does
     two natures are united in Him.           Bavinck explains the reason for               mean, nor is that the point here,
     The importance of this question          this:                                         but rather that there is no reason
     is evident from the fact that a             The terms of which the church and its      for abandoning or changing such
     whole creed of the early church          theology make use, such as person,            terminology, except to cover
     is devoted to answering various          nature, unity of substance, and the like,     heresy.
     heresies that arose at this point.       are not to be found in Scripture, but are        Nor may we forget that the
     That creed is the Creed of               the product of the reflection which Chris-    church, in using such terminol-
                                              tianity gradually had to devote to this
     Chalcedon. After the different           mystery of salvation. The church was          ogy to defend the doctrine of the
     heresies concerning the real             compelled to do this reflecting by the        incarnation, was not without the
     humanity and real divinity of            heresies which loomed up on all sides,        guidance of the Holy Spirit, a fact
     Christ had been answered by the          both within the church and outside of it.     which has been tested both by
     early Church in the Niceno-              All those expressions and statements          time and usage. It is indeed,
                                              which are employed in the confession of
     Constantinopolitan Creed, a sec-         the church and in the language `of            then, the greatest possible ar-
     ond phase of the Christological          theology are not designed to explain the      rogance to throw away such ter-
     controversies began with ques-           mystery which in this matter confronts it,    minology or to insist on new
     tions about the union of Christ's        but rather to maintain it pure and un-        language sirnply because the
     two natures. The .Creed of               violated over against those who would         credal statements of this doctrine
                                              weaken or deny it. (Our Reasonable
     Chalcedon was the church's               Faith, chap. 16).                             are not literally Biblical. It is also
     answer to these questions and a          These terms, therefore, are not               foolish in that it opens the door
     rejection of the new heresies that       infallible, but this does not forbid          to the old Christological heresies,
     denied in one way or another the         their use or make them useless.               many of which are still around
     teaching of the Scriptures on this         What Calvin says in this con-               today, though clothed in new
     subject.                                 nection is very much to the `-                garb.
       The necessity of this credal           point. He grants that such words                We must, then, not only show
~    statement is to be found in the          are human formulations and .says              what the confession.of the
     importance of-the doctrine of the        that we must not fight furiously              church is on these points of doc-
     union of Christ's two natures for        `or mere words. But he also says:             rine, but be careful to define the
     our salvation. Only if Christ is           Where names have not been invented          :erminology that is used as clear-
                                              ,ashly, we must beware lest we become         y as possible, and show that
                                              :hargeable with arrogance and rashness        such terminology does indeed ex-
                                              n rejecting them.                             lress the teaching of Scripture

     404 / The Standard Bearer


concerning the union of Christ's      Galatians 4:4, 5, and Philippians          the substance of His mother, born in the
two natures.                          2:6-11 which refer to both                 world. . . . Who, atthough He is God
3. "Person" and "nature."             natures of Christ while making it          pnd man; yet He is not two, but one
                                                                                 Christ.
  The key terms used in speak-        clear at the same time that they           That is the faith of the church,
ing of Christ's divinity and,         are speaking only of onerp~erson.          however it is' expressed.'
humanity are the words person         Christ, `personally, is the Sec-              These terms were used already
and nature:It is not easy to          ond Person of the trinity. We              in, the Creed of Chalcedon:
define these terms, though. every-    have already, seen the impor-
one has an almost instinctive         tance of this,in another connec-              We, then, . . . teach . . . one and the
                                                                                 same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to
idea of what they mean. Some          tion, but Scripture also indicates         be acknowledged in two natures, incon-
definition of them is important,      the truth of this. In Philippians 2,       fusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, in-
however, in order that it may be      for example, P,aul does not say            separably; the distinction of natures be-
very clear that the church has        that the divine nature assumed             ing by no means taken away ,by the
not abandoned the teaching of         the form of a servant, but that            union, but rather the property of each
                                                                                 nature being preserved, and concurring
Scripture by using these terms.       Jesus Christ, already -existing in         in one Person, and oneSubsistence, not
  When we speak of a person,          the form of God (personally ex-,           parted or divided into two persons, but
we are talking about all that         isting, that is) took on the ,form of      one and the same .Son, and, only begot-
makes him a unique individual.        a servant. Likewise, John in I             ten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Personality, however, is more         John 1:14 does not say that the            as the prophets from the beginning have
                                                                                 declared concerning Him; and the Lord
than mere individuality. Only ra-     divine nature became flesh, but            Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and
tional and moral beings can be        that the Word became flesh and             the creed of the holy Fathers has handed
persons, and though other             dwelt among us.                            down to us.
creatures such as plants and            When we speak of Christ's                The Belgic Confession uses the
animals may have a certain in-        nature or of a nature, we are              same language centuries later:
dividuality, they do not have a       speaking of certain kind of being,           We believe that by this conception, the
person. God is personal and so        about what makes a man a man,              Person of the Son is inseparably united
are men, angels, and devils, for      an angel an angel, about the sum           and connected with the human nature;
                                                                                 so that there are not two sons of God,
all have intellect and will. The      total of characteristics that dis-         nor two persons, but two natures united
person, therefore, is that which      tinguish one being from another.           in one single Person (Art. XIX).
consciously and responsibly says      Christ has two natures, as  w-e  .'        Let us not forget, therefore, that
"I." For the purposes of our          have already proved-from Scrip-            our faith in Christ is not only
discussion, however, it is prob-      ture, and is, in other words, two          faith in the teaching of Scripture,
ably  enough'simply to think in       entirely-different kinds of'beings,        but the faith of the church, to
terms of uniqueness and in-           while at the same time being but           which we hold by speaking with
dividuality, for the truth that       one individual, one Christ. This           one voice with the church of all
mustbe emphasized about Christ        is, of course, the heart of the            ages to whom God Himself has
is that there is only -one Christ,    great mystery of which Paul                promised that He will give the
though He is both human and           speaks. in I Timothy 3:16, and the         Spirit of truth. May that confes-
divine. He is not two Christs, one    foundation of our salvation in             sion of the church, tested on the
human and one divine, but one         Christ. The Athanasian Creed               battlefield of faith and through
unique individual, one Person.        perhaps expresses it best of all           time, be our guard today against
  This is the clear testimony of      when it says that He is:                   all attacks on this cornerstone of
Scripture, though Scripture does       God of the substance of the Father,       our faith.  q
not use the word person in this       begotten before the worlds; and man of'                `.
sense. In I Timothy  2:5, for ex-
ample, Paul says that there is
"one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus." And        New subscribers! Order 3 year's
in. I Corinthians 8:6 he says the
same thing: "But to us there is        subscription at half price,
but one God, the Father, of
whom are all things, and we in         $6.00. 
him; and one Lord Jesus Christ,                                :
by whom are all things, and we
by him." .There are also those
passages such as Romans 1:3, 4,

                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer / 405


                                                                                     One more example: #9, titled
Book Review                                                              '         "God Loves Us" has the following
                                                                                   lyrics: "God loves us all: so says
                                                                                   the Bible, The letter He has sent
                                                                                   to you and me." and "Do you
                                                                                   trust Him? that is the question.
SING ABOUT IT, Volume One,             presume this will be a series of            Those who say, Yes! the Lord
S. Vander Ploeg; Steinco In-           Bible song books, although the              will richly bless."
dustries, LTD; distributed by In-      book gives no information about               Having been a primary teacher
heritance Publications, P.O.  Box.     the author and his goals.              -    for many years, I know that
145, Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada          The idea of such a book as this          children love simple songs and
TOG 1RO; $7.95 Can./$6.95 U.S.,        is commendable. However, the                lively rhythms. Many of the
paper. (Reviewed by Gertrude           lyrics, even for children, are              songs in this book are in the style
Hoeksema)                              superficial, and in some songs              of chants, and lack the ex-
   This is a ring-bound song book,     not Reformed. For example, in               pressive rhythm patterns of
with illustrations, of' twenty-one     #2, stanzas 2 and 4, the words              young children. Some are written
Biblical songs for children. The       are: "No, Cain, no, remove all              in the minor mode, with somber
book includes such titles as           thoughts of hate. 0, Cain, 0,               rhythms.
"Goliath was a Giant," "Elijah's       before it is too'late," and "Yes,             I would like to see a bit more
Voice," and "Our Daily Bread."         Cain, Yes, you still belong to me.          depth in the lyrics and more
Because this is volume one, I          Know, Cain, know, you are my                sparkle in the music in future
                                       property."                                  volumes. i





                                       Repdrt of Classis East

May 11, 1988                           the Stated Clerk and from the               14 Slopsema, August 2 1 - Van
Hope Protestant Reformed Church        Classical Committee. A brief                Baren, September 4 - Wouden-
   Classis East met in regular ses-    report was received from the                berg, September 11 - Kortering,
sion on Wednesday, May 11,             committee appointed to assist               September 18 - Gritters. FAITH:
1988 at the Hope Protestant Re-        Faith Church.                               May 29 - Kortering, June 5
formed Church. Each church was           Classis considered, and ap-               -Woudenberg, June 26 - Gritters,
represented by two delegates.          proved, an overture from Byron              July 3 - Joostens, July 10 - Key,
Rev. B. Woudenberg led in open-        Center to raise (from $30 to $50) . July 17 - Slopsema, July 24
ing devotions after which Rev. R.      the payment of lost wages to                -Kamps, July 31 - Van Baren,
Flikkema served as chairman. Of        elders in attendance at classis.            August 7 - Woudenberg, August
note at this meeting was the at-       Classis also considered one                 14 - Kortering, August 21 - Grit-
tendance of Mr. Cal Kalsbeek's         discipline matter in closed ses-            ters, August 28 - Joostens, Sep-
church history students at Cove-       sion.                                       tember 4 - Slopsema, September
nant Christian High School.              Holland and Faith requested               11 - Kamps, September 18 - Key.
   The business of this session,       classical appointments. The                   Expenses of classis amounted
except for two items, was              following schedules were                    to $880.00.
routine. Reports were heard from       adopted: HOLLAND: May 22                      Classis will meet next on
                                       -Kamps, June 5 - Van Baren,                 Wednesday, September 14, 1988
                                       June 12 - Slopsema, July 3                  at Byron Center. q
                                       -Woudenberg, July 10 - Korter-                      Respectfully submitted,
                                       ing, July 17 -:Gritters, July 24                    Jon J; Huisken
                                       -Jo&tens, August 7 - Key, August                    Stated Clerk

406  / The Standard Bearer,


                                    :
                    .





                                                                                                         .

                                                                                                              ~_-





                                l'&ws                                    From
B e n   W i g g e r                         O u r   C h u r c h e s

                          June 1,1988       family through the preaching of.      Christian Schools; Adams, Hope,
   Let us begin this news column            Christ crucified. Because of the      Heritage, and Covenant.
with a look at the Grandville               comfort and encouragement               One incident in which the
Protestant Reformed Church                  Grandville has received through       communion of the saints was ex-
located in Grandville, Michigan.            the faithful preaching of Gods        pressed beautifully was Ellen
   On August 18, 1983, the Con-             Word, Grandville holds a special      Dick's recent heart/lung trans-
sistory of the Hope P.R.C. in               place for Pastor Kortering and his    plant. Many of the women of the
Walker, Michigan called a meet-             family.                               church helped Ellen at home dur-
ing to determine the interest in              After purchasing four acres of      ing her months prior to surgery.
organizing a congregation in the            land on 40th Street in Grandville,    Both Ellen and Mitch, her hus-
Grandville area. Beginning Sun-             work was begun on building a          band, were also in the prayers of
day, October 9, nineteen families           new parsonage toward the end of       all the congregation during the
of the proposed Grandville P.R.C.           1985. As seems to be quite com-       time of difficulty in their lives.
attended worship services which             mon among all of our churches,          Now for some other news from
were held in the auditorium of              when they undertake a building        our churches.
Grandville High School. On                  project, much of the work is.           Rev. R. Van Overloop has
February  9,:1984,  twenty-five             done by`volunteer labor from' the     declined the call from First `P.R.C.
families and five individuals               congregation. Such was also the       in Grand Rapids, Michigan to
becamecharter members of the                case -in Grandville when they  5'     serve as the second missionary to
Grandville P.R.C., after which              built their parsonage.                J a m a i c a .
three elders and two deacons                  This work was completed in            Rev. M. Joostens has been ex-
were chosen and installed into of-          March of 1986 and Pastor Korter-      tended a call from the Holland
fice.                                       ing and his family moved in:          P.R.C. in Holland, Michigan to
   Rev. Jason Kortering was in-               Presently Grandville has just       serve as their pastor.
stalled as Grandville's first pastor        about paid off the total cost of        And Rev. B. Woudenberg has'
on July 1, 1984. By Gods grace,             the parsonage and are eagerly         been extended a call from the
he serves in that capacity at the           looking forward to building a         Hope P.R.C. in Isabel, S.D. to
present time. Grandville has                new church sometime late this         serve as their undershepherd.
grown spiritually as a church               year or early next spring, the          From the Randolph P.R.C. in :,
                                            Lord willing.                         Randolph, Wise. we found that
                                              Grandville is a very young con-     they are again having problems
                                            gregation. with very few people       with their church organ. A few
                                            over the age of 50. Of course'        months ago they spent some.
                                            this also means that Grandville       money to repair it, and it is
                                            has a lot of children. There were     becoming questionable whether
                                            23 baptisms in Grandville last        continuing to repair is the wisest
                                            year alone. Presently the congre-     course of action. Therefore the
                                            gation has 71 families, about 185     consistory has appointed a com-
                                            children and 343 total members.       mittee to investigate purchasing
                                              Grandville might also be the        another organ or repairing their
                                            only church in the Grand Rapids       present one.
Ben Wigger is an @der ,in the Protestant    area that has itschildren attend-       The Senior Young Peoples
Reformed Church of Hudsonvjlle,
Michigan.                                   ing all four Protestant Reformed      Society of Faith P.R.C. in Jenison,

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer I407


l?O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



Michigan reported that their           P.R.C. in Edmonton, Alberta,         his righteousness unto children's
clothing drive for-Jamaica was a       Canada were invited to a hayride     children." (Psalm  103:17)
big success. They collected 530        followed by a bonfire and re-        Dave and  Lenore  Dieck
pounds of clothing for our sisters     freshments.                            John, Kathy, Mary
and brothers in Jamaica.                 Friday, May 6, was also the        Randy and Janice Bode
                                                                            Ed and Mary Stouwie
  And speaking of Jamaica brings       date for the 2nd annual Adams          Kevin, Rachel, Curtis
me quite naturally to the              Booster Club Auction held at         Cys and Joanne Van  Baren
Bruinsmas. Mary Bruinsma and           Covenant's gym in Walker,             -Philip, Christy, Michelle,
children will have arrived in          Michigan. Proceeds from that           Eric, Todd
Grand Rapids, Michigan, from           evening of fun were going to pur-    Craig and Sharon Derks
                                                                              Dale, Keith, Jennifer, Brian
Jamaica, the Lord willing, on          chase a school bus.
Monday, May 16. Rev. Bruinsma            Hope P.R.C. in Walker,             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
will be arriving, the Lord willing,    Michigan held a Request Night          On June  11,1988, our
on Thursday, June 2. They will         April 22 at church. They planned     parents, MR. AND.MRS. PETER
be in the Grand Rapids area most       special numbers on the piano,        KOOLE will observe their 40th
of the time until they return to       organ, accordion, marimba, and       wedding anniversary.
Jamaica on July 13.                    harmonica. Other special               We, their children and grand-
  The Hope Christian.School Cir-       numbers inciuded a chalk talk, a.    children, are grateful  `to our
cle in Redlands, Calif. held their     vocal solo, the Sunday School, a     Covenant Cod for the years He
annual Spring Banquet April 15.        sextet and a family singing          has given them and for their
The school has many critical           group.                               Christian instruction.
needs at this time, such as floor-       From Southeast P.R.C. in             "Behold, that thus shall the
ing, roof repairs, and new storage     Grand Rapids, Michigan: "Funny       man be blessed that feareth the
cupboards. One project, such-as a      how a $10.00 bill looks so big       Lord. Yea, thou shalt see thy
successful Spring Banquet, was         when you take it to worship, but     children's children." (Psalm 128)
hoped to go a long way towards         so small when you take it to the     Larry and Pat Koole
meeting this need.                     supermarket." 0                      Ken and Pat Koole
  At a congregational meeting                                               Jim and Kathy Vander Kolk
held in March, the consistory of                                            Jim and Gladys Koole
the Immanuel P.R.C. in Lacombe,                                             Ron and Sherry Koole
                                                                            Tim Koole and Tresa
Alberta, Canada was given              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                    and 24 grandchildren
unanimous approval to go ahead           On June  18,1988, the Lord
and bid to purchase the Nazarene       willing, our parents and grand-
Church building and its contents.                                             ATTENTION!
                                       parents; MR. AND MRS. ED-
  April 28 a band concert was                                                    In recognition of and ap-
                                       WARD STOUWIE, will celebrate
given by the.combined  junior                                                 preciation for his many
                                       their 40th wedding anniversary.
high students of Adams, Heritage,                                             years of  fait.hful service in
                                         We are thankful to our Cove-
and Hope Christian Schools, as                                                our Seminary and as Editor
                                       nant God for them and the
well as some numbers by `Cove-                                                of  The Standard Bearer  the
                                       covenantal instruction they
nant Christian High School. This                                              Theological School Commit-
                                       have given us. We pray for
concert was held at Covenant, in                                              tee and the Board of The
                                       Cod's continued blessing and
Walker, Michigan.                                                             R.F.P.A. are sponsoring an
                                       care upon them in the years to
   On May 6 the young people                                                  Open House for Prof. H.C.
                                       come.
and young couples from the First                                              Hoeksema, June 16, 8:00
                                         "But the mercy of the Lord is        p.m. at Hudsonville Prot.
                                       from everlasting  to,everlasting       Ref. Church.
                                       upon them that fear him, and


408  I The Standard Bearer


