January 1959 “Outward improvements have their value but inward growth and spiritual deepening are far more important.” At the Turn of the Year Henry J. Kuiper “There is no doctrine so basic and fundamental as that of the infallible Holy Scripture. If this bastion falls all our defenses of the truth of God have crumbled.” The Infallibility of Scripture Denied Henry J. Kuiper “Our days need a positive Christian attitude. Negative attitudes, denials and refusals are not sufficient; moreover, a constant negation of something is not a Christian attitude.” * * * * * “It is vain to fight with half-truths against the lie.” * * * * * “It is impossible for a Christian world to exist without real Christians.” The Message of the Unknown Freedom Fighter Alexander S. Ungvary “The first point we must take into consideration is the obvious fact that Genesis One is a portion of the Holy Scripture. Therefore, it is God breathed, written by a man who was borne of the Holy Spirit, and ‘cannot be broken.’ In other words it is infallible Scripture. This fact lifts it up out of the category of ordinary human compositions. It is really beside the point to speak of the literary genre of Genesis One.” * * * * * “Genesis One does not give us the thoughts of men with respect to the creation; it gives us rather a revelation from the living and true God.” The Nature of Genesis One Edward J. Young February 1959 “There are Christians who emphasize religious knowledge at the expense of religious service. They occupy themselves almost exclusively with the doctrines of the faith to the neglect of practical activities. Christianity for them is knowing God’s will, studying God’s will, and sometimes arguing God’s will. They seem to ignore or minimize the doing of God’s will.” * * * * * “The blunt truth is that without this disposition to serve Christ beyond the comfort of our armchair we have no satisfactory evidence that we really belong to His army.” Our Shoes and Our Shield Leonard Greenway “[M]an, lost in Adam and adding to his sin every day, has no inherent right either to salvation or to hearing the way of salvation.” Are Those Who Never Heard the Gospel Saved? William Hendriksen March 1959 “When a church no longer reaches out it passes out.” Helmet and Sword Leonard Greenway “Hell is hell because God is there in all His wrath. Heaven is heaven because God is there is all His love.” God in Hell and Hell Fire William Hendricksen “We shall know each other there, and we shall live in the sweetest fellowship with one another. Is the statement too strong that those, and those only, who love fellowship here will partake of the fellowship there?” Are These Truths “Practical”? William Hendricksen April 1959 “There are too many Christians who budget their time so poorly that they have only a few minutes a day for prayer. When we are too busy to pray, we are too busy!” * * * * * “To test the intensity of our praying let us ask whether we can remember what we prayed for yesterday. Can we remember ten minutes after we prayed what we definitely asked of God? If our requests sit so lightly upon our minds, dare we expect the Holy Spirit to take them seriously?” Praying Soldiers Leonard Greenway May – June 1959 “If each member would speak to only one new person at each service, the results would be overwhelming. Not only would no visitor be ignored, but I dare say many members of the congregation would become acquainted with each other for the first time.” The Pinanskis Go to Church “Peter” Palmer July – August 1959 “The only Scriptural way to church union is the way of the unity of the faith. External unity which has no basis in unity of doctrine is neither real nor enduring. It has no spiritual value.” Convergence of Two Denominations Henry J. Kuiper “The business of being Jesus Christ’s men and women is not a hobby or avocation. It is not something we play around with; it is our supreme job in life.” The Christian’s Supreme Calling Katie Gunnink September 1959 “The men who live apart from God are bound to make gods for themselves that their insecurity and anxiety may be removed.” The Idol of Power Rein Leetsma “Biblical truths which are sometimes tagged the distinctive Reformed teachings, such as the sovereign grace of God and unconditional election of the believer in Christ do not hang loosely onto the body of truth, like a satellite circling around a planet. Rather they define the very heart of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.” On Being Reformed and Christian Paul G. Schrotenboer “Our indifference to the Reformation principle of ‘Scripture alone’ is the tell-tale token of the cancer of subjectivism among us today.” * * * * * “[T]rue ecumenicism seeks to have fellowship with and, so far as possible, witness to Christ with those who seek to make their thought subject to the Christ as He speaks through His infallible Word.” * * * * * “[F]alse ecumenicism is based on a Christ-ideal projected by men who do not bow to the Christ of Scripture.” Calvin and Modern Subjectivism Cornelius Van Til October 1959 “When Bible reading ceases in the homes of which the church is composed the spiritual ignorance of the members becomes so great that they will have no taste for Biblical preaching and no ability to understand solid sermons.” The Future of Our Family Altars Henry J. Kuiper “We must expect the will of God to be bound up so immediately with the Word of God written that the inerrancy of the will of God must reflect immediately in the inerrancy of the form to which this will of God is now wholly committed.” * * * * * “Under no condition can the unbeliever be permitted to influence my definition of Christian doctrine with a reasoning that is basically alien to the thoughts of Scripture.” Infallibility Explored Marten H. Woudstra November 1959 “Man can have fellowship with God only by an arrangement made by God Himself.” The Covenant of Grace and Our Christian Schools Edward Heerema December 1959 “By the word of the unseen Lord were the heavens made, but to take away our sin the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.” Christ the Destroyer Leonard Greenway “The Reformed faith is the only theology which does full justice to the most basic of all truths: that God is God – the self-contained, self-sufficient, absolutely sovereign God who works all things after the counsel of His will; who is supreme over all, has the right to do in His world and with man as He pleases; whose ‘dominion is an everlasting dominion.’” * * * * * Reformed theology, like Scripture, takes its starting point not in Christ but in the triune God, from whom, through whom, and unto whom are all things.” The Only Theology the Bible Knows Henry J. Kuiper “Supporters of Christian schools are not clear on what we mean by a Christian education. It seems to me that if we want to justify the tremendous expense of maintaining separate schools we ought to strive for a clearer understanding of their function.” Do We Really Need Christian Schools? Walter A. De Jong