When the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church met in June of this year at the Knollcrest Campus of Calvin College there were many very important items on the Agenda. But the matter which caused the most concern and attracted the most attention was the doctrinal issue raised by the writings of Prof. Harold Dekker in the […]

“I don’t know what is wrong with our church, the way it has handled the ‘Dekker matter.’” That remark was recently made to the writer of these lines by a minister in the Christian Reformed Church who has served the denomination well in several churches and in various broader ecclesiastical responsibilities and is still in active service. […]

Our readers continue to ask questions regarding the position of Professor Harold Dekker and the Doctrinal Report in the Acts of Synod, Christian Reformed, 1966, which the churches are asked to study. For this time I will deal with one of the most crucial aspects of the problem by asking whether or not we mayor should […]

The Historic Reformed Position 1. In addition to God’s general, non-salvational love (common grace) for all men, God has a special love that is limited to those whom he has foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29). 2. As a result of this special love of God for a special, definite number […]

Of all the many issues requiring the attention of the synod of the Christian Reformed Church next month, none will be followed with more intense interest than the report on “doctrinal matters” concerning the nature of God’s love and the design of Christ’s atonement. Not only has this been before for the church officially for […]

Over four years ago Professor Harold Dekker began a controversy in our church circles by publishing an article in the December, 1962, Reformed Journal under the title, “God So Loved—All Men!” The ensuing discussion led eventually to the appointment by the Synod of 1964 of a “Doctrinal Committee” which presented its report to last year’s synod. That […]

Some time in the early nineteen-thirties J. Gresham Machen spoke to a large audience in the chapel of the University of Chicago. According to the information given to the writer this noted spokesman for orthodox Christianity dwelt on the struggles of the church in the modern age. In speaking of the resources of the Christian in waging […]

When the 1966 Synod of the Christian Reformed Church met in Pella, Iowa, one of the most important items on the Agenda was the report of the Doctrinal Committee; the committee appointed by the Synod of 1964 “to study in the light of Scripture and the Creeds the doctrine of limited atonement as it relates to […]

Karl Barth diabolized contemporary theology with his meretricious distinction between “Historic” and “Geschichte”; many theologians today have renounced their faith in the infallibility of the Bible through accepting Barth’s seductive allegorizing of Biblical events, such as Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection. Bultmann’s demythologizing of the Scriptures has been equally pernicious. In “Rudolf Bultmann: A Call to Arms?” (The Reformed […]

The Dekker Case . . . The most talked-about item on the agenda for the 1966 synod of the Christian Reformed Church (held in Pella, Iowa, June 8–16) was the “Dekker Case.” Some two and one-half years ago Prof. Harold Dekker, teacher of missions at Calvin Theological Seminary, had asserted that an obvious deficiency in […]