BLOOD RIVER: The Passionate Saga of South Africa’s Africaners and of Life in their Embattled Land, by Barbara Villet, 1982, Everest House, New York, 255 pages, clothbound $16.95. A few weeks ago an old friend called to suggest that we ought to review this extraordinarily good book, observing that a wider acquaintance with it might […]
The past week was bracketed by two meetings, one on Monday and the other on Friday evening, both of them concerned with the same subject. The subject of interest was last June’s Christian Reformed synod decisions and their expected consequences. A Feminist View The first, held on Monday, Nov. 5, in the Calvin Seminary auditorium, […]
Book Review Trumpeter of God. A Biography of John Knox. by W. Stanford Reid. 1974. paperback edition by Baker Book House 1982. 353 pp. $8.95. After the Reformed Fellowship began a third of a century ago its periodical for most of the first two decades was called Torch and Trumpet; then, perhaps because the old […]
Confusion About Leadership The most recent Christian Reformed study committee to deal with the troublesome questions about women’s eligibility to serve in church offices had to study the Bible’s teaching about the “headship” to which God had called men. Although the questions about this matter had arisen in connection with church offices, the committee also […]
The October 4 annual meeting of the Reformed Fellowship began with an afternoon session which crowded the basement of the Kelloggsville Church. It featured an address by Rev. Raymond J. Sikkema of the Mount Hamilton Christian Reformed Church of Hamilton, Ontario, reflecting as a delegate on the 1984 C.R. Synod. Reflections on the Synod He […]
Many readers of the Christian Reformed Churches’ Banner were likely startled to find it’s September 17, 1984, issue largely devoted to the discussion of homosexuality. It appears that the successful effort to override the Biblical prohibitions of women in church office may now be followed by a comparable effort to break down the churches’ traditional […]
Decisions of the latest Christian Reformed Synod have startled many people. They make it plainer than ever that we who by the grace of God want to hold and maintain the Biblical and therefore Reformed Faith will have to do much more than try to expose increasing errors of faith and life. We will have […]
LICENSING Students and Candidates Jelle Tuininga I have never been happy with the policy of having the Board of Trustees of Calvin College and Seminary license candidates for the ministry in the Christian Reformed Church or give students license to exhort in the churches. Now that this procedure has been “tightened” and updated, I am […]
The coming June synod meeting promises to be a turning point in Christian Reformed denominational history. The key proposal on the synod agenda will not seem to be very significant. We may expect to see its importance minimized by especially its promoters. The assembly will be asked to approve opening our churches’ governing consistories to […]
Shirking Men Incite Officious Women Arthur Besteman Recently I visited with two young men who are completing their first year of service as officebearers in the Christian Reformed Church. The one is serving as a member of the consistory of a large, suburban church, the other holds office in an average size rural congregation. […]