January 1956
“[T]he work of salvation is not an exclusively spiritual affair, but extends to the redemption of the entire man, body and soul. The Word which operates savingly in man penetrates not only to the spiritual consciousness, but also to the physical being of man.”
Psychology and the Bible Edward Heerema
February 1956
“Denominational boundaries are never the same as national or social boundaries, that is, they may never be regarded as merely normal differences based upon race or temperament or convenience or tradition. The ideal of the Church organizationally as well as doctrinally and spiritually is union.
A Sample of Ecumenical Agitation John H. Piersma
“Delegates at the conference oozed with the confidence that if enough people talk about the problems in education the right answers will surely come. And how does one know that the answers are right? When the majority of people believe they are. Americans have a great faith in fellow Americans.”
White House Conference on Education Sidney J. Dykstra
“[T]here is a tacit assumption that in man Evolution has had its last word: it has nothing further or better to offer – which some might take to be a tacit admission that Evolution is a spent force, no longer to be reckoned with.”
Evolutionary Dogma and Christian Theology Philip E. Hughes
March 1956
“Could we be going in the direction of ‘synodocracy’?”
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I am not seeking debate here. I only offer my impression. However, we get the impressions that, for many around us here, Christian action is a matter of expediency, not principle; that neutrality is possible and allowed; that the antithesis is a lost principle.”
Reflections of an Immigrant Pastor Francois Guillaume
“We learn from the Bible and from contemporary history that there are projects whose beginning is in the Spirit but whose ending is in the flesh.”
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“American history is replete with schools and churches begun in the Spirit that today are edifices of the flesh. There is little reason to suppose that Satan would not like to repeat the performance with our Christian schools.”
From a Principal’s Desk Walter A. De Jong
April 1956
“That which makes the worshipping congregation a church is her relationship to Jesus Christ.”
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“The church must live Christ’s life in such a way that she really represents Christ in the world.Compromise with the sins of the world diminishes the luster of this life. Conformity to the world’s mentality and manners is a radical defection from the church’s essential nature as Christ’s Body.”
The Church of Christ in the World Alexander C. De Jong
“We have taught our people well; but in large measure they remain ‘passive’ instead of ‘active’ as far as implementing and propagating the faith is concerned.
Toward an Active Membership Peter Y. De Jong
May 1956
“The kind of freedom commonly claimed by men in our day is not the freedom of the creature but the freedom of would-be gods. Properly speaking, God alone is free and beyond responsibility to anything or anyone other than himself. The freedom of the creature is both limited and responsible. Man cannot fly, nor can he be born where he chooses, or with the face or abilities he selects. Neither can he ever act independently of God and man must at all times act with responsibility.”
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“In a Calvinist institution, of all places, the exercise of freedom should be seen in terms of the responsibility and limitations of the creature under God, rather than a rebellious son of Adam seeking to be a god and denouncing all of God’s and man’s just requirements of him.”
Academic Freedom R. J. Rushdoony
July 1956
“[M]any who sit in the seats of church councils will have to do much more reading and studying than they are doing now. In their meetings they will have to do vastly more significant things than argue sixty minutes whether they should paint the church interior pastel green or rose. These men must discipline themselves so that they know what they believe in terms of Scriptural knowledge and confessional commitment rather than in terms of pious clichés.”
The Road Into the Church Alexander C. De Jong
“[T]he passage of time has proved that those who, during the last century, opposed the evolutionary doctrine of inevitable progress were in fact a hundred years ahead of their time.”
Is Evolution a Dogma or Law of Life? Philip E. Hughes
September 1956
“The Christian school teacher must find the right focus as to the pupil’s covenantal status. It is very easy to distort this position by assuming too much and by assuming too little. What does it mean for teacher-pupil contact that the child is a covenant child? Are these children in a basically right relationship to God or do they live at some halfway station? Must we train them as Christians or as children who need to become Christians?
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“As educators watch more and more spiritually anemic and anonymous products leave our schools they plead for a direct concern for the spiritual welfare of the child. It is urged that Christian educators must press for a personal decision for Christ.”
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“We must ever urge our covenant children to the act of appropriation and commitment. They must be called to repentance and faith without ceasing. To mute this sound is to infect the covenant children with the fatal disease of complacency and ease. And this remains a sickness unto death.
Finding the Focus Alexander C. De Jong
October 1956
“The sense of mission seems to be weaker in our churches today than possibly ever before. We give money in abundance, but we are not eager to give ourselves.”
On Christian Leadership Peter Y. De Jong
November 1956
“[T]here is a definite relationship between man as God’s image bearer, man as a rational, moral, and responsible being, and the three offices which we recognize and maintain in the instituted church, our various congregations. I refer to our minister, elders, and deacons. The ministers represent Christ to his people as the prophet of truth; the elders represent him as king and ruler of his Church; and the deacons exercise Christ’s office of merciful high priest.”
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“[T]he fact that all of us as true children of God are his prophets, priests, and kings, in principle restored to the high position once occupied by man in the state of rectitude, implies the right and the duty of the believers to organize themselves as autonomous local churches.”
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“The members of our churches need not and may not take for granted that everything is always well within the church.”
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“We should never treat God’s believing people as minors who have no voice in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical.”
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“If a denomination is under control of those who are unfaithful, and if petitions or protests remain unheeded or ineffective, and if attempts at reformation are blocked or unsuccessful, then the true welfare of God’s Church and the spiritual protection of God’s people may require that the faithful withdraw themselves from the corrupt or false church, and establish a new denomination.”
The Believer’s Office and the Church Martin Monsma