NAMES FOR THE CHURCH or WHAT’S IN A NAME? Men have been giving their congregations and denominations a great variety of names. With so many names already taken, it has become increasingly difficult to find a new one. Congregations which once were identified by geographical location and numerical sequence no longer want to be third […]
A Necessary Distinction Protestants have considered the church as an object of faith. We believe much that we cannot see. Theologians have therefore very naturally come to speak of the church as both visible and invisible. By this they did not intend to imply that there were really two churches, one visible and the other […]
“Let the church be the church.” With this logical slogan Dr. John Mackay began his term as president of Princeton Seminary in the fall of 1937. He spoke and taught much about the church, but I was never able to determine what it was he wanted the church to be and to do. Undoubtedly, he was […]
A Biblical Church Order? The Reformers wanted to ground their church polity on the Scriptures. This was their strength against the traditions of Rome. Calvin was fully convinced that the church order which he developed could be derived from the Bible. Any recent efforts to deny the sufficiency of the Word as a guide for […]
With this article, L. Oostendorp, retired Christian Reformed pastor and Reformed Bible College professor, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, begins a new series of studies on the Doctrine of the Church. Nowhere have more theories been modified to support practice than in church polity. A surprising number of strange practices have been justified by appeals to […]
This review is about a Dutch theologian with a well-known name. His name is Berkhof, but his theology has little in common with that of our well known Louis Berkhof. In fact, while Hendrikus Berkhof quotes from hundreds of theologians, there is not one reference in the index to his American namesake. Perhaps this is […]
God‘s salvation is fantastic. It is wonderful in its comprehensive goal. God has promised marvelous blessings for today and tomorrow. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ. Now we are sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be. However, it has not always been easy to know how much […]
How Much Must We Believe? When is faith saving? Time was when the intellectual requirements were too high. Today they are too low. Both extremes have hindered people from entering the Kingdom. The true preaching of the Gospel adds no requirements beyond the necessary truths. But it is also insistent that the standard shall not […]
The Great Salvation Salvation is a complex and many-sided thing. Christ’s own teachings clearly demonstrate this fact. Nor are the Pauline doctrines less comprehensive. Salvation has a past, a present and a future. It involves a justification which God effects outside of us (for us), a sanctification which Christ effects in us, and a glorification […]
The teachings of the Christian faith are often studied under the six divisions of, the doctrines of (1) God, (2) Man, (3) Christ, (4) Salvation, (5) the Church, and (6) the Future. In this article Dr. Lubbertus Oostendorp, who recently retired after spending the last 15 years of his service as a minister teaching Christian […]