A fellow church member and I get into an argument. Nobody else is present. We differ sharply and honestly. After a while he loses his temper and calls me “a hypocrite.” Of course, I feel offended. What am I to do? Scripture gives a clear answer to that question. The offense is both personal and […]
By permission of the Zondervan Publishing House, the following is reprinted from the late Professor R. B. Kuiper’s book, TO BE OR NOT TO BE REFORMED. Originally published in 1959, this material still retains as value because it is so forthright, discerning, and also remarkably contemporaneous. Let no one say that the Christian Reformed Church […]
President Kromminga, Board of Trustees, Faculty of Calvin Seminary, Representatives of other institutions, Whatever other dignitaries may be present, Friends of Calvin Seminary: I wish to thank the Board of Trustees of Calvin College and Seminary for inviting me to speak on this happy occasion. Perhaps some of you think the board could have done […]
Certain teachings are of the essence of Christianity. Often they arc spoken of as Christian fundamentals. They are indeed basic to the Christian religion. The doctrine that the Bible is the Word of God is the most basic of them all, for the whole of Christianity is derived from the Bible. All Christian teachings, whether doctrinal or […]
Of the monarch who, having perpetrated a twofold enormous crime, prayed: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit […]
It goes without saying that these comments do not purport to be anything like an exhaustive study of the Agenda of the synod of the Christian Reformed Church scheduled for June of this year. All that is intended is the making of a preliminary appraisal of a select number of the salient features of the […]
The March 1965 issue of the popular Missionary Monthly contains a courageous editorial entitled “The Widening Gulf Between the Pulpit and the Pew.” Its author, the Reverend G. De Witt, finds that gulf in Protestant churches in general and in his own denomination, the Reformed Church in America, in particular. “The pew” is said to distrust “the pulpit” because […]
“THICK LAYERS OF FOG…” The Christmas season has done it again! In another denominational paper an attack on the biblical doctrine of the Virgin Birth has been published. Subtly but surely the article was like an invitation to countless termites to come into the very foundation of the faith. Developing his argument, the author contends that in […]
Late in 1962 an article by Professor Harold Dekker of Calvin Theological Seminary precipitated a doctrinal controversy in the Christian Reformed Church and beyond. That controversy concerned the love of God, particularly the universality of that love. In the light of what has since been written on the subject it ought to be possible at this […]
Scripture tells us of Satan that he “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). He hates the truth and constantly wars against it. While he plays a part, no doubt, in […]