All Articles For Decker, Robert D

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

Prof. Deckeris professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The elders of the church are called by God to take oversight of the congregation. This, as is apparent from Holy Scripture and the Reformed confessions, is a very serious matter. Oversight involves church discipline, and church discipline is one of the three marks of the true church which easily distinguish her from the false church. Church discipline may be understood in two senses. In the broader sense it refers to the spiritual care and rule of the congregation by the elders. This would include the visiting of the...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Having discussed previously the various steps or admonitions to be followed by the elders in the application of Christian discipline upon an impenitent sinner as these are outlined in Articles 76 and 77 of The Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches, we turn now to a discussion of the last step of Christian discipline. This last step is excommunication. This last step is required according to Article 76 which reads, Such as obstinately reject the admonition of the consistory, and likewise those who have committed a public...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the previous article in this series we called attention to the fact that, because Jesus Christ is pleased to minister His Word, rule His flock, and care for the needy through the lawfully called officebearers, the people of God must receive these men as the representatives of Christ Himself. Before proceeding to discuss the qualifications for the office of elder we call the readers attention to an address given by Dr. Samuel Miller to the members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Dr. Miller was...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

The CRC Synod 1995: Significant decisions On at least four important issues the Christian Reformed Church’s Synod of 1995 took significant decisions. These issues are: women in office, admitting of children to the Lord’s Supper, continuing relations with the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (GKN), and the second worship service on the Lord’s Day. Not only were the decisions taken significant, they were in all four instances wrong. Concerning women in office the synod was presented a majority report and a minority report by its advisory committee. The minority report retained the 1994 decision, but with altered grounds. It said, “the most...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Of the several passages which speak to this subject, I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 are the most comprehensive. These passages present the following qualifying gifts: blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to or lover of hospitality, apt to teach (“able to exhort and convince the gainsayers,” Tit. 1:9), not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler (“not given to riot,” Tit. 1:6), not covetous, rules his house well, not a novice, has a good...

Repent and Rescind That is the message the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) received from the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Negative reaction to the CRC synod’s decision to permit women to serve in office by permitting classes to declare parts of the Church Order “inoperative” has been strong and immediate. Fraternal delegates to the CRC synod from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland expressed strong reservations about the decision in their fraternal addresses to the CRC synod. But the strongest reaction to date has come from the PCA, whose Interchurch Relations Committee has previously...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the previous article we examined in some detail the gifts necessary for the office of elder as these are presented in I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. If we consider these gifts as a whole we may conclude that the elder in Christ’s church must possess certain qualifications or gifts of the Holy Spirit of Christ. These are: spirituality or genuine piety, humility, sympathetic understanding, courage or boldness, knowledge of the truth of Holy Scripture. To this must be added the fact that Scripture teaches that the...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Take It—or Leave It? This is what one keen analyst of this year’s synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) said in reaction to that synod’s decision re opening the offices of minister and elder to women, and to its decision not to break fraternal relations with the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland WW “We have only two options,” said the analyst, “Take it or leave it. The CRC is not ‘headed in the wrong direction’; as of Synod 1995, it is on the wrong course. Our choice is no...