Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Psalm 128:1 Who of us does not feel the need to know that God is blessing us? Only when we are assured of this can we have peace and rest in our souls. Each one of us should ask, “Is God blessing me? Is He blessing our family? Has […]
As a preface to our discussion of women in ecclesiastical office we want to look briefly at the Biblical concept of “office” itself. When a surveyor prepares to set the boundary lines on a piece of property it is crucial t hat he establish an exact point of beginning. If his point of beginning is […]
One gets the impression that the Bible’s teaching of God’s sovereign Predestination is more often criticized or attacked than it is preached and taught in some of our church circles. The February, 1983 Reformed Journal highlighted one of the bitterest such attacks with the cover title “A Respectable Blasphemy? PREDESTINATION,” and the article by a […]
The Local Church When we talk about the church at worship we need to consider what we mean by the words. Although we sometimes speak of the church in a broader sense as “the church universal,” “the invisible church,” etc., we are concerned with it more particularly as the local congregation. The first and most […]
EARTHQUAKES AS “SIGNS” Among the “signs” which our Lord mentioned as signaling His approaching return were “earthquakes, in diverse places” (Matt. 24:7). An article in the January, 1983, issue of Getrouw by Alexander Seibel on “The Background of Terrorism Illuminated from the Bible” calls attention to these signs mentioning especially the increasing frequency and intensity […]
During the last few months, and also in former years, we have heard about and read articles on “Concerns for the Church.” This should not surprise us. The church is and should be a most important thing in our lives. We read in article 27 of the Belgic Confession, “We believe and profess one catholic or […]
HUNGER FOR GOD’S WORD IN POLAND An article in the Bible Society Record (Feb., 1983) features a large picture of a long line of people, three and four wide, stretching out of sight down the block, waiting to receive Bibles at the Bible House in Warsaw. According to the article in 1982 the Bible […]
The acronym WARC is derived from the beginning letters of World Alliance of Reformed Churches. This is a world-wide organization of churches, both liberal and conservative, which trace their origins back to the Presbyterian and Reformed form of church organization. Several years ago it was reported the the Alliance also has members which have Lutheran, […]
D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: THE FIRST FORTY YEARS 1899–1939, by Iain H. Murray. Published by the Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Carlisle, PA, USA, 1983. Hardcover, 394pp. $15.95. The former editor of the Banner of Truth publications provides us with a fascinating and illuminating account of the first half of the 80-year life of […]
There has been much discussion in recent days about the proper role of religious groups in the political arena. The emergence of such conservative organizations as the Moral Majority has led many liberal clergymen to decry the politicalization of religion. When they do so, they ignore the far-left political activity of the National Council of Churches […]