This year of our Lord, 2018, marks the four hundredth anniversary of the convening of the Synod of Dort in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. The Synod of Dort was convened in order to settle the ongoing controversy in the Dutch churches regarding the teaching of Arminius and his followers on the topic of election. For those […]
Their World, by Abigail Van der Velde. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2017. 268 pages. $10.00 (and various prices online). Lately, it seems impossible for me to escape: whether I open my business LinkedIn page, pick up a newspaper, or stick around long enough to watch a television commercial, there’s now always a celebration of women in […]
Book review of The Cross and the Double-Edged Sword, by Norman De Jong. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2017. 164 pages. $14.49. This book was born of a series of Bible studies on the book of Revelation by Dr. Norman De Jong. The words “double edged sword” are from the opening vision of John on the […]
Step 3: Identify and Prioritize Problems Identifying Problems Aside from helping counselees frame their problems in light of God’s sovereignty, one of the primary objectives of biblical counseling is to bring the Word of God to bear on the problems the counselee is facing in a compassionate manner. If this objective is to be fulfilled, […]
It was the great missionary William Carey who said, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” The URCNA appears to be doing little of either. We are a small-minded group of churches. In the opinion of this writer, the reason is fear. Someone once said, “Fear is the beginning of defeat.” Fear […]
Good News for Postmodern Man When you hear the word “postmodernism,” what comes to mind? Do you think of a religious pluralism that affirms faiths of every stripe, so long as the subscribers of those faiths admit that all roads lead to heaven? Do you think of social activists who welcome and tolerate the diverse […]
Heaven Most of our thoughts about the future are punctuated by question marks. This is true in the short term; we wonder what the rest of this week will be like. But when we think about eternity, our questions multiply. For those who treasure Christ’s promise—“I go to prepare a place for you . . […]
The Grace of Predestination When the Remonstrants or followers of Jacobus Arminius wrote their Remonstrance in 1610, they began with the doctrine of predestination, reflecting the language of Ephesians 1: “That God by an eternal and immutable decree has in Jesus Christ his Son determined before the foundation of the world to save out of […]
In A Few Words With the appearance this issue of The Outlook, we are approaching two major holidays in this country—Thanksgiving Day in November (Canadians already celebrated it in October) and Christmas in December. Both are secular holidays, by which I mean that neither was instituted by divine or biblical mandate. That does not mean, […]