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 […]

INTRODUCTION At the close of my previous article sketching the life of Abraham Kuyper, I suggested that the key to an interpretation of his labors lies in what Kuyper called the “life system” of Calvinism.1 Kuyper’s engagement in a wide range of reforming activities—as a church reformer and theologian, politician, educator, journalist—can only be accounted […]

COMMON GRACE In Kuyper’s vision of a Calvinistic worldview, as we have seen, there was no place for the kind of Christian piety that withdraws from active involvement in the affairs of this world. Since God is the Creator of all things and the supreme Sovereign in every sphere, Christian believers are called to serve […]

The agenda of Synod 2001 includes an item that could easily be overlooked though it is potentially one of the more emotionally-charged issues the CRC has faced in the last seventy-five years. Overture 1 (Agenda, p. 305) from Classis Grand Rapids East notes that 1999 was the 75th anniversary of the “common grace” conflict leading […]