About this time of the year, when we contemplate the excitement of starting another school year and wonder aloud how we are going to payoff the tuition account, the necessity of Christian schools again begins to nag us. Are Christian schools really worth the cost of tuition? Is there enough difference between Christian and secular […]
Last month Dr. Beeke presented encouragements for cultivating holiness. Now he discusses obstacles to the cultivating of holiness. The cultivation of holiness will inevitably meet with numerous obstacles. Much impedes holiness. Five common problems against which we need to be on guard are these: 1. Our attitude to sin and life itself is prone to […]
Popular words heard at the 1995 Synod of the CRC in the debate for women-in-office were: “compromise, peace, tolerance, room for everyone, brothers, for the love or sake of the denomination, unity, no one wins, both are right, do not tear or unravel the blanket.” How honorable it all sounds, but does obedience to God’s […]
Evangelical churches should beware of the mistakes of the mainline The book’s title was The Power of Their Glory; its subhead described Episcopalians as “America’s ruling class.” The Episcopal church was just one of several mainline denominations that rocketed in membership, prominence and influence in the years after World War II. The horrors of war […]
The First Amendment got a thorough thrashing recently when the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a restraining order against West High School students in Salt Lake City. Its ruling was in response to a lawsuit by a student and her parents demanding that the school’s a-capella choir not sing two traditional songs because they […]
On March 7, 1995, the North Grand Rapids Ciassis of the Reformed Church in America voted “to remove the Seventh Reformed Church, its property and assets” from the classis and thus also from the Reformed Church in America (RCA). The crisis was precipitated by the General Synod 1993 which required congregations to subscribe for the […]
I am now a member of an orphan church. I refer to the Seventh Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, of which I was once the pastor, and to which I now belong under the excellent pastoral leadership of my successor, the Rev. Dr. John R. de Witt. On March 7, 1995, our classis, the North […]
In June we presented Dr. Godfrey’s address on the sufficiency of Scripture alone, given at a debate between leading Protestant and Catholic theologians on the topic: What Still Divides Us: A Protestant and Roman Catholic Debate. This month Dr. Godfrey discusses the Roman Catholic distortions of this doctrine and his conclusions on the matter. CHARACTERlSTIC […]
Some time back, a reader wrote to ask me to address a column to the subject of the practice of “term eldership.” (For those unfamiliar with the practice, allow me to explain: in many Reformed churches, elders are selected by “election” by the congregation for a specified term of office. “Ordained” to office only once, […]
Among those signs of the times which distinguish the period of history between Christ’s first and second coming is the tribulation which will befall the faithful people of God. This tribulation is one of the signs of opposition to Christ and the coming of His kingdom. In a previous article we considered the subject of […]