In the Ancient Near East when a king was captured the war was over. The nation was conquered.King Nebuchadnezzar thought he has brought about the demise to another nation. In his quest to expand his empire he had crushed another rebellion. He had captured Zedekiah the leader of a rebellion. In turn, he had publicly […]

Introduction Public education has come increasingly under scrutiny by the government, the news media, and the public herself. Interestingly, the voice criticizing the failures of public education is no longer just the heckling of religious groups or the wealthy that have placed their children in private schools. Recently, those living in economically depressed communities have […]

“When the woman saw that the fruit was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6). In a way, everything that follows this verse in the […]

II. The Attributes of God “…He is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good.” 1. Incommunicable Attributes We confess that God has incommunicable attributes. This means that these attributes cannot be communicated, or given, to His creation. These attributes make God uniquely God and distinguish […]

Is there a distinction between Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism? A final question that needs to be addressed to the new perspective’s treatment of Second Temple Judaism relates to the distinction between Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism. Does the new perspective adequately take into account the difference between the teaching of the Old […]

It used to be said that Christians were “too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.” That critique no longer holds; in fact, it has been reversed. Far from being “too heavenly minded to be any earthly good,” Christians today, it seems, are “too earthly minded to be any heavenly good.” Though the Scriptures exhort […]

I hate cooked spinach; always have, always will. Always looked to me like seaweed, and tasted just as bad. I blamed Popeye for it. The cartoon character with the forearms and the muscle-generating can of spinach caused many boys (and girls) to eat more of the green stuff than they wanted. At least I could […]

It was another time and another place. I was just new to the ministry. One of the people that I began visiting regularly was a woman in her early sixties. She had never married and had very little family to speak of. We would visit and have coffee and poppy seed bread. Alice made the […]

January 1974 “One of the real dangers when facing this problem is that we will seek solutions which we will learn to regret. History ought to teach us a few things. Various ‘gimmicks’ have been used to increase attendance in some churches. Of course, they failed. The church, the body of Christ, the pillar and […]

For those interested in the Christian Reformed Church the annual agenda provides a good read. Unfortunately most of the copies will go unread. There are some 443 pages in this year’s Agenda for Synod. One can hardly summarize them within the confines of a short article, but the following are some highlights with a bit […]