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 […]
CITIZENS FOR EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM At the present moment the Christian Reformed Church is undergoing a marked change in its thinking concerning tax aid to independent school children. Ten years ago there was little enthusiasm for this proposal, except by some who from personal experience had seen bow equitably to all the system had worked in Holland. […]
Israel had been defeated by the Philistines. Some Israelites got what he thought was a bright idea. With the ark of Jehovah in the midst of the army hostilities should be resumed. That would make victory certain. The idea caught on. The priests Hophni and Phinehas were commissioned to carry the ark. However, in the ensuing […]
The december 1962 issue of The Reformed Journal contains an article by the Reverend Harold Dekker, Associate Professor of Missions in Calvin Theological Seminary, under the title “God So Loved—All Men!” That piece has created a considerable stir in the Christian Reformed Church and beyond. To date the editors of at least three religious periodicals, De Wachter, […]
More than once Dr. James Daane has commented in a less than complimentary way in The Reformed Journal on my saying in God-Centered Evangelism that God could, had he so willed, have brought the elect to heaven by mere power. Most recently Dr. Daane did that in the January, 1963, issue. I did say that. In […]
We laymen have many obligations to our pastors. We must pray for them, and most of us do. We must check up on their preaching and teaching after the manner of the Bereans, who, having heard the apostle Paul, searched the Scriptures daily to make sure he was right (Acts 17: 11 ). Most of us […]