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BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE J. G. VOS, Editor and Manager Copyright © 2016 The Board of Education and Publication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (Crown & Covenant Publications) 7408 Penn Avenue • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15208 All rights are reserved by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and its Board of Education & Publication (Crown & Covenant Publications). Except for personal use of one digital copy by the user, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. This project is made possible by the History Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (rparchives.org). BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE VOLUME 33 JANUARY-MARCH, 1978 NUMBER 1 EVOLUTION..................................................................................................3 UNDERSTANDING THE TRINITY........................................................4 STUDIES IN THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS................................ 7 BLUE BANNER QUESTION BOX........................................................26 RELIGIOUS TERMS DEFINED..............................................................27 REVIEWS OF RELIGIOUS BOOKS......................................................28 A Quarterly Publication Devoted to Expounding, Defending, and Applying the System of Doctrine set forth in the Word of God and Summarized in the Standards of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church. Subscription $2.50 per year postpaid anywhere J. G. Vos, Editor and Manager 3408 7th Avenue Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 15010, U.S.A. Published by The Board of Publication of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America Overseas Agents Britain and Ireland: The Rev. Adam Loughridge, D .D ., 429 Cregagh Rd., Belfast BT6 OLG, Northern Ireland Australia and New Zealand: The Rev. Alexander Barkley, M .A., 2 Hermitage Rd., Newtown, Geelong, Victoria, Australia Known Office of Publication: 3408 7th Avenue, Beaver Falls, Pa. 15010 Published Quarterly, Second Class Postage Paid at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 15010 With additional entry at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee 37350 Passing Aioay By Christina G. Rossetti Passing away, saith the World, passing away; Chances, beauty and youth sapp’d day by day; Thy life never continueth in one stay. Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to gray That hath won neither laurel nor bay? I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May; Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay On my bosom for aye. Then I answer’d: Yea. Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away: With its burden of fear and hope, of labor and play, Hearken what the past doth witness and say: Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array, A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay. At midnight, at cockcrow, at morning, one certain day, Lo, the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay: Watch thou and pray. Then I answer’d: Yea. Passing away, saith my God, passing away: Winter passeth after the long delay: New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray, Turtle calleth turtle in Heaven’s May. Though I tarry, wait for me, trust me, watch and pray. Arise, come away; night is past, and lo, it is day; My love, my sister, my spouse, thou shalt hear me say— Then I answer’d: Yea. A Pure River of Water of Life By Christina G. Rossetti We know not a voice of that River, Pure gold is the bed of that River If vocal or silent it be, (The gold of that land is the best). Where for ever and ever and ever Where for ever and ever and ever It flows to no sea. It flows on at rest. More deep than the seas is that River. Oh goodly the banks of that River, More full than their manifold tides, Oh goodly the fruits that they bear Where for ever and ever and ever Where for ever and ever and ever It flows and abides. It flows and is fair. For lo on each bank of that River The Tree of Life life-giving grows, Where for ever and ever and ever The Pure River flows. BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE VOLUME 33 JANUARY-MARCH, 1978 NUMBER 1 Evolution — God’s Method of Creation? By J. G. Vos The view commonly called “Theistic Evolution” to the statement that God breathed the breath of life seems to be commonly accepted in some Christian into the nostrils of Adam. circles today. Briefly, this view holds that evolution was God’s “ method” of creation. This implies, of 4. If theistic evolution, an age-long process of course, that creation was a process, not an act. development, was really God’s “method” of crea­ tion, then the Genesis account of the creation of Eve We are being asked, “ Could not God have used a from a part of Adam’s body cannot be true (Gen. long evolutionary process as His ‘method’ of creating 2:21-23). Eve, too, would have had a sub-human living organisms, including man?” But of course the father and mother. She would be the product of an real question is not whether God could have done age-long process, not of a definite act of God as this, but whether He actually did do this. God is described in Genesis two. almighty and we cannot set limits on what He could do. But in discussing the question of human origin, 5. If “the dust of the ground” in Genesis 2:7 is a we are not concerned with abstract possibility, but metaphor for the living bodies of sub-human with what the Word teaches as to what God actually animals, we encounter difficulty in Genesis 3:19, did. till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt Scriptures especially involved in this matter are thou return.” This verse is obviously a description of Genesis 1:26,27; 2:7; 2:18-23 (creation of Eve); and human bodily death and the return of the dead body 3:19 (the return to dust). to its lifeless components. It will not do to take “ dust of the ground” as a metaphor for the living bodies of What the Common View of Theistic Evolution sub-human animals in 2:7, and a description of Implies human death and decay in 3:19. We would have to hold that 3:19 means that on account of human sin, 1. According to theistic evolution, Adam and Eve humanity would return to an animal or ape-like con­ had sub-human parents. While Adam and Eve would dition. But this obviously is not what happened. Man be regarded as the first human beings, they had sinned, he became evil, but he did not cease to be parents which were less than human. The implica­ human; he did not return to the condition of the an­ tions of such a supposition are disturbing to accepted thropoid apes or other animals. Christian truth. 6. Conclusion. Theistic evolution raises more 2. “The dust of the ground” (Gen. 2:7) from problems than it solves. In the end we must choose which Adam was formed is taken by theistic evolu­ between these two alternatives: (1) The creation ac­ tionists as a metaphor meaning the bodies of count of Genesis is literally true; or (2) the Bible is previously living sub-human animals. Biblical Chris­ basically false and untrustworthy. tianity teaches, rather, that “ the dust of the ground” means lifeless inorganic matter. Modern Theology’s Escape Hatch 3. After forming the body of Adam, God Modern liberal and neo-orthodox theology dispose “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and of Genesis chapters 1-11 by denying their historical man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7b). But if “ dust character and calling this section “myth.” But this of the ground means the living bodies of sub-human brings modern theology into head-on collision with animals, we are here faced with difficulty. For the the New Testament. Note especially Paul’s animals (anthropoid apes or whatever) already had statements in Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians the breath of life in their nostrils. So if Adam had a 15:22,45. Obviously the inspired writers of the New pre-human father and mother, these parents were liv­ Testament took Genesis literally, not as metaphor or ing, breathing organisms, and there remains no point myth. 4 Understanding the Trinity By J. G. Vos The subject of this article may perhaps seem dry Philip Schaff, in his History of the Christian and abstract, or of little practical importance for the Church, in discussing the doctrine of the Trinity, Christian life. But really there is no truth of the says: “ . the term person must not be taken here in Christian Faith that is more important for the way of the sense current among men, as if the three persons salvation and the Christian life. Christianity stands were three separate individuals, or three self- or falls with the doctrine of the Trinity; where this conscious and separately acting beings. The word truth has been abandoned, Christianity soon disap­ person is in reality only a make-shift in the absence of pears. It is the landmark of the Christian Faith. a more adequate term.” The divine Trinity (or the Tri-unity of God) is a Schaff also says: “ There is only one divine essence mystery in two senses. It is a mystery in the Biblical or substance. Father, Son and Spirit are one in sense; that is, it is a truth that we never could have essence, or consubstantial. They are in one another, known if God had not revealed it to us in the Bible. inseparable, and cannot be conceived without each And it is also a mystery in the ordinary sense, for it is other.” “The three persons are related to the divine a truth which baffles our understanding and substance not as three individuals to their species, as transcends our power to comprehend.

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