GOOD Friday—1956! What does it mean to you and me? The meaning of this day, the most significant day in history, depends on the significance of Christ’s cry, “It is Finished!” In the sixth word from the cross we find confession of messianic consciousness: we hear the voice of the witness, the sigh of the sufferer and […]
The Editorial Committee of Torch and Trumpet has requested that I record my overall reactions to and somewhat settled impressions of the Christian Reformed Church. I am grateful for this opportunity and comply with thanks. Permit me to acknowledge that I shoulder this responsibility with misgivings. There is the difficulty of expressing myself accurately in the […]
This is the point at which we now stand: the biblical term heart refers first of all to a physical, bodily organ. This is the term’s “eigentlich” (literal, proper) meaning, according to Kittel and others. Having established this point of departure…we are now ready to move on to the main place that the word heart occupies in […]
Baptism declares unto us that we in ourselves are unclean and therefore the objects of God’s wrath. God has emphatically stated:—“Cursed is everyone who remaineth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.” The sacrament of Baptism is a reminder that we should not be in church as […]
THE DEFENSE OF THE FAITH: Cornelius Van Til; 436 pp. The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1955. This volume setting forth the now famed Bramble Patch Philosopher’s answer to his critics is in a sense a welcome one indeed. In another sense the […]
The previous article in the January issue discussed the fact that our Christian school graduates were not as enthusiastic about implementing the Reformed Faith as we would like them to be. It was also hinted that scholastically we might also wish for some improvement. As educators we have a responsibility to evaluate these criticisms. We learn […]
Attrition and Contrition at the Council of Trent GORDON J. SPYKMAN (Kok, Kompen, 1955. pp. 270) This is the doctrinal dissertation of Dr. Gordon Spykman, now minister of the Christian Reformed Church at Blenheim, Ontario. Dr. Spykman’s academic work at the Free University of Amsterdam was carried on under Dr. Berkouwer, himself a past master at […]
America today is enjoying overwhelming prosperity. Year after year our national income increases staggeringly. Our tables groan each day under the weight of rich foods. Our clothes are cut according to the latest patterns. Our homes are more sumptuously furnished than king’s palaces of old. We ride in cars of the newest models. We take expensive vacations. […]