To merely look and fail to really see . . . That’s the awful tragedy of it all—if we are content, whenever the calendar calls for it once again, to observe the Christian holidays by taking another look at Jesus in a manger, on a cross, in and out of the tomb, and ascending to […]

That’s how Jesus replied to questions, problems, and difficulties that were agitating the church in His day. “Have ye not read?” He would ask, and then go on to quote a relevant passage of Scripture to settle the matter in hand once and for all. In other words, if the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the […]

Recently the members of the Calvin Seminary Faculty felt called upon to address a page-long “Open Letter to the Christian Reformed Church.” In The Banner of December 4, 1970, with their signatures affixed, the Faculty concluded its letter with a request for confidence as follows: “What in these times we covet and indeed expect from […]

Annual Meeting – October 20, 1967 Wish to say something about the portrait of a Protestant. However I now have some misgivings. I thought I was perfectly safe but I think I have spied somebody who was present when r spoke along this line some time ago about 500 miles from here. I have misgivings also because […]

This Easter meditation was written by the late editor John Vander Ploeg, (formerly editor of The Banner) in March, 1975. A blessed Easter to you! But let’s be clear about one thing. That wish can come true only on this condition: that by faith we think the right thoughts. Fragrant flowers, a new outfit, and […]

(The following article is a reprint from the August 1973 issue of The Outlook. It has been edited for size.) The 1973 CRC Synod has spoken on homosexuality. In a nutshell, Synod rejected homosexualism (homosexual practice) as sin (for which we are in deed grateful!) while at the same time it made certain pronouncements about […]

Although adopted into our English language, the word desideratum, as used in the title above, is Latin and may be somewhat unfamiliar. Why use it then? Because I can think of no other single word that says it all — that is, all that I wish to try to say about the matter of a […]