All Articles For Engelsma, David

The Covenant Theology of Jonathan Edwards: Law, Gospel, and Evangelical Obedience, by Paul J. Hoehner. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021. Pp. xxxii + 330. $42.00 (softcover). ISBN: 978- 1725281578. [Reviewed by David J. Engelsma] The reader of this journal will readily understand that this volume leaped off the book table into this reviewer’s hands and clamored to be reviewed in the journal to which he is permitted access. The publisher did not send a copy for review. But the reviewer became aware of the book at a Puritan conference. He bought it. It is not the theology of Jonathan Edwards...

Amillennialism, by William Bunting and David McAllister. Northern Ireland: Assembly Testimony, 2020. Available free at assemblytestimony. org. Pp. vi + 138. N.p. (softcover). [Reviewed by David J. Engelsma] Out of Northern Ireland, especially of late, has flowed an abun­dance of witness to the truth of the gospel, including the future fulfill­ment of the gospel in the (one) coming of Jesus Christ. Out of Northern Ireland has also come Amillennialism, a short book perpetuating and defending the heresy of premillennial dispensationalism. The value of the book for the Reformed reader is that it sets forth the full theology of dispensationalism in...

As we have been considering what it means to be a true man of God, we have examined different relationships and circumstances in which God calls Christian men to live. We have looked at sexuality and single life, dating, marriage, and family. In this article we take up a different sphere of life in which men must be men: the workplace. This is an important subject for men to consider. Women also are called to work, but typically that work is done in the sphere of the home and family. The sphere of the man is the workplace and providing...

For the past sixteen years, it has been my responsibility, but also my privilege, to serve the members of the Protes­tant Reformed Churches as editor of the Standard Bearer. In some small way, I may hope, a much wider audience has benefited. Nearly half the present subscrip­tions to the magazine go outside the Protestant Reformed Churches. Responses, public and private, have indicated appreciation, as well as vigorous opposition, from without. Although the Standard Bearer exists primarily for the building up of the members of the Protestant Reformed Churches in the truth, it is also a voice, sometimes friendly, at other...

The one who gives assur­ance to the believing child of God, we saw last time, is the Spirit of Christ. There is nothing surprising about this, since He is the one who gives certainty about everything. The Spirit gives the church cer­tainty that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. We believe “with­out any doubt all things contained in them [the sixty-six books of the Bible], not so much because the church receives and approves them as such, but more especially be­cause the Holy Ghost witnesses in our hearts that they are from God” (Belgic Confession, Art. 5). The...

Having waited in vain for response to one of the editors’ calling Herman Hoeksema’s denial that faith is a work “nonsense,” with an exclamation point (see the Standard Bearer, vol. 95, no. 12, p. 279), I am compelled to write in protest. (I confess that I hesitate still, even though my name has been raised, because the entire, ongoing debate over good works is a “red herring” among us. The debate over works in the Christian life was occasioned by a sermon on John 14:6 that was not in error on the matter of antinomism, indeed had nothing whatever to...

Previous article in this series: September 1, 2019, p. 465. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” Hebrews 10:16 “Why will God…have the ten commandments so strictly preached? .That we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.” Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 115 Introduction These concluding articles in the series on premillennialism are a kind of “postscript.” They examine...

Previous article in this series: May 15, 2019, p. 379. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” Hebrews 10:16 “Why will God…have the ten commandments so strictly preached? .That we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.” Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 115 Introduction In previous articles in this series, I explained this “postscript” to my treatment of premillennialism’s...

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2019, p. 285. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” Hebrews 10:16 “Why will God…have the ten commandments so strictly preached? …That we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.” Heidelberg Catechism, Q 115 Introduction To my examination of the doctrine of the last things of premillennialism I add a...

Previous article in this series: February 1, 2019, p. 211. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” Hebrews 10:16 “Why will God…have the ten commandments so strictly preached? …That we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.” Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 115 Introduction In my treatment of premillennialism as part of my defense of Reformed amillennialism in eschatology,...