Unwilling to work for reformation of the present deformed social order, many people, especially students, are resorting to civil disobedience and violence. The present wave of demonstrations and street riots sweeping the Western world is justified by those taking part in them on the grounds that an individual or a group is entitled to disobey […]
ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY? Dr. A. Kuyper, founder of the “Free University, called his political party the Antirevolutionair Partij. With this indication, he meant to say, that he was strongly against radical changes in the social and political structure of society. Even though his program was principled by the Word of God, yet he was determined to introduce […]
The Anabaptists have in the past been treated rather shabbily, much like the proverbial “step-children.” This is the basic judgment of the Rev. Leonard Verduin whose interest in his subject extends over a period of many years and has stirred him to write this book on The Reformers and Their Step-children. In a series of chapters, each […]
The four-hundredth anniversary of the most widely used Reformed catechism has been celebrated recently. The Heidelberg Catechism was commissioned by Frederick III, elector of the Palatinate, and published by him on January 19, 1563. Its chief authors were Zacharias Ursinus, a twenty-eight year old professor of theology at the University of Heidelberg, and Caspar Olevianus, a […]
Dr. Godfrey concluded his first article by describing Luther’s theology as a “personal theology.” Luther began as a monk, a devotee of the church; he became a student of Scripture and subsequently became strongly convicted of the truth of salvation was to be found only by grace through faith. LUTHER’S WRITINGS Now that experience led Luther into a public path […]
Around October 31, Martin Luther is remembered far and wide in the United States among evangelical protestants as a hero of the faith. We look back at Luther as a pioneer, as a profound theologian, as a heroic reformer. Some of us gather in Reformation Day services on October 31st to remember the great beginning […]
This article is an edited transcription of an address give during the annual meeting of the Reformed Fellowship on October 6, 1994, in the Beverly Christian Reformed Church (Independent). I divide what I want to say to you now into two parts. The first I call a diagnosis, an analysis. The second is a proposed […]
In the last issue Dr. Godfrey discussed Martin Luther’s writings about right doctrine and law and gospel. He concludes the series by reviewing Luther’s writings on faith, and on the law as a spiritual guide. LUTHER’S WRITINGS (continued) On faith Now as a corollary to this distinction between law and gospel, Luther discussed faith. Faith […]
450 years ago, a request came to John Calvin to write on the character of and need for reform in the Church. The circumstances were quite different from those that inspired other writings of Calvin, and enable us to see other dimensions of his defense of the Reformation. The Emperor Charles V was calling the […]
1997 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Philip Melanchthon. Philip was Luther’s right-hand man, trusted and loved by Luther. He was 14 years younger than Luther, but was with him from the beginning in the reforming work that Luther led from the university and the pulpit of Wittenberg. […]