“By his wounds we are healed.” —Isaiah 53:5b “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.” —John 19:1 Several centuries before Christ’s birth, the prophet Isaiah foresaw and foretold the suffering of the Messiah in great detail. Isaiah 53 is an amazingly accurate picture of what was actually going to take place eight hundred years later. One […]
“Do you believe that after you die your physical body will be resurrected someday?” This was the question a polling group asked a thousand American adults in 2006. Only 36 percent answered yes to this question. Now compare that survey with an earlier poll by the same group that asked, “Are you absolutely certain that […]
“We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are saved, and outside of it there is no salvation . . .” —Belgic Confession, Article 28 Though we as Reformed Christians may be unsure or even uncomfortable about how freely present-day evangelicals speak about their relationship to Christ in the possessive “my” or […]
Our eternal destiny depends on whether we are in the first Adam or the second Adam. In the first is condemnation; in the second full justification, sanctification, and glorification. Those who remain in Christ are heirs with Him in all the benefits that the Father has granted through Him. We have already considered the first […]
Throughout this chapter, Paul has listed several wonderful reasons why Christians should rejoice: exemption from judgment, victorious living, assurance of salvation, the hope of coming glory, and intercession through the Spirit. Before he is finished with this chapter, he lists one more: God makes all things work for the good of those who love him. […]
This article first appeared in the April, 1995 issue of The Outlook. In his recent commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Rev. Andrew Kuyvenhoven calls the catechism “the best confessional and teachable summary of the will of God for the life of the church.”1 That’s quite a compliment for a document over four centuries old. What […]
This article first appeared in the October, 1987 issue of The Outlook. What we ordinarily call “catechism preaching” is prescribed in Article 54 of the Church Order of the CRC in this way: “a. In the worship services the minister of the Word shall officially explain and apply Holy Scripture. b. At one of the […]
This article appeared in the October 1987 issue of The Outlook. It was reprinted from June 1986 (Australian) Trowel and Sword. A recent song had these lyrics: Don’t be so hard on the ones that you love; It’s the ones that you love that you think so little of . . . These words are […]
This article originally appeared in the October 1987 issue of The Outlook. Every pastor in the Christian Reformed Church ordinarily each Sunday must “preach the Word as summarized in the Heidelberg Catechism, following its sequence” (Church Order, Article 54). Whether every pastor does this is another matter, a matter to be addressed by the elders […]
This article first appeared in the October 1987 issue of The Outlook. This suggested approach to catechism preaching was prepared for some seminary students and may interest our readers. The Christian Reformed Church Order states (Art. 54b) “At one of the services each Lord’s Day, the minister shall ordinarily preach the Word as summarized in […]