A REPORT AND REACTION TO PROFESSOR HUGH KOOP’S LECTURE “The Church Goes Underground” On Monday evening, March 9, 1970, the Reverend Hugh A. Koops, an ordained Christian Reformed minister serving as a teacher in Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan, spoke to a public meeting held in the Calvin Theological Seminary building, Grand Rapids, under auspices […]
Of late, more and more leaders in the Christian community are raising questions concerning the practice, in that community. of putting up beautiful, expensive church buildings which are generally used only a couple of hours a week, and for the remainder of the time stand empty. Specifically, the question is: Can the Christian community still […]
An important question There can be little doubt that the question stated in the title of this article is a very important one for all who claim to be Reformed. Particularly in our time the question is of extreme importance. (1) In recent years we have witnessed all kinds of new theological developments, which […]
Dear Jim: Your last letter made me happy and sad at the same time. I’m happy that you’re willing to write about your experiences and about what you’re thinking. But it makes me sad, a bit angry, and sick at heart to hear about some of your friends who have started to smoke “pot”. I […]
Some time ago, I came upon a book in my library entitled Subjects and Outlines, by L. Berkhof. It is an old book, published in 1918. But in the form of short theses, it gives statement to biblical principles of life which are ever new and which most of our Reformed people have forgotten. Amid […]
Before I wrote the following, I hesitated for some time. If I should say what I think, then maybe some of my fellow ministers would become angry. And who wants to be the object of anyone’s anger, and especially of that of preachers? The study is too peaceful and pleasant to get all hot and […]
Editors, TORCH AND TRUMPET Grand Rapids, Michigan Dear Brethren: A hearty “thank you” to Dr. Maatman for his excellent article in the February issue of TORCH AND TRUMPET, “Can the Bible Contain Scientific Facts?” His development of the absence of any peripheral matters in the Bible is very helpful. There is however, one statement which […]
RELEVANCY Let’s get with it. No more fuddy-duddy sermons on such abstract things as divine election, sanctification, prayer, heaven-hell, salvation, divine adoption, and the like. Let’s be relevant. Let’s have sermons on the Blacks, dope addiction, Vietnam, civil disobedience, mail strikes, pollution, abortion and revolution. So cry some non-relevant critics. Yes, let the church preach […]
The concern of this brief article is a report entitled “The Grand Rapids Inner City And The Christian Reformed Church.” This report, as we understand, has been addressed and sent to the consistories of the Grand Rapids Christian Reformed churches. It seeks to alert these churches to the problems existing in the inner city, and […]