All Articles For Kuiper, Douglas J.

Does your congregation include someone who was born with a physical or neurological abnormality? Down Syndrome? Autism? Cerebral palsy? William’s Syndrome? Guillane-Barre Syndrome? Fragile X Syndrome? Or some other condition? Do you know of a fellow believer who was not born with an abnormality, but who later had a stroke, aneurysm, traumatic fall, or accident, and suffered the effects ever since? Such people serve the body of Christ, and Christ’s church serves them, even when we do not notice it or understand how. This mutual service is a spiritual reality. God gave also to special needs members “the measure of...

One year ago, the “News From Seminary Hill” article answered the question, “What happens on Mondays at seminary?” This article gives a glimpse into seminary life on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Good reason exists to devote an article to the Tuesday/Thursday schedule. First, most classes meet twice a week, either on Tuesday and Thursday or on Wednesday and Friday. With this focus you can learn about entire classes. Second, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the more routine days of the week; Wednesdays and Fridays often include some special events. Next year, God willing, the Wednesday/ Friday calendar will be featured. GREEK GRAMMAR...

This article concludes the series on the Grammatical- Historical-Spiritual (GHS) method of Bible interpretation by referring the reader to two other books for further reading. Both books are good books, and recommended—although if a person could buy or read only one of the two, I prefer the second, and will explain why. But I restate: both books are good, and recommended. The two books are: How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed. by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014. 301 pages. Softcover. Understanding God’s Word: An Introduction to Interpreting the Bible,...

The following book is reviewed by Prof. Douglas Kuiper, professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of Trinity PRC in Hudsonville, Michigan   The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written, by Kevin DeYoung. Wheaton: Crossway, 2025. 93 pages, softcover. $12.99.   Today (as I write this) is May 20, 2025. Seventeen hundred years ago to the day (May 20, 325), the Council of Nicea, the First Ecumenical Council, convened. Several books have already been published this year commemorating the council’s anniversary. Some are large...

Two articles in this issue of the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal will be of general interest to all Reformed readers, while two others will be of specific interest to members of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRCA). Of general interest are the first and fourth. Rev. Joshua Engelsma contributes the first article in a two-part series. It is a historical-theological examination of these questions: Is saving faith a bond of union with Jesus Christ? Or is the Holy Spirit Himself that bond? And more specifically, what did Reformed writers in the past say about this? The historical investigation has...

Ecclesiastical bodies—consistories, classes, and synods, in Reformed church polity1—exist to serve churches. Consistories are the basic ecclesiastical body, found in every congregation. They serve their congregations by administering God’s Word to the congregation as a whole and supervising the spiritual lives of its members. Synods are generally the broadest assembly or body in a denomination. Synods serve the entire federation of churches by making decisions regarding activities that the churches carry out in common (mission work, training theological students, contact with other denominations) and regarding matters that the churches share in common (matters of a doctrinal or church-political nature, including...

by Mark A. Granquist. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2025. Hardcover. Pp xvi + 382. $44.99. ISBN 9781540963314. Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper. As a nation, the United States of America will soon observe its semiquincentennial birthday. But the history of Christianity in North America is over 400 years old: Protestant religions came to North America with the colonists, while Roman Catholicism came as early as 1526 (39-48). Mark Granquist, professor of the history of Christianity at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, chronicles this history of Christianity in North America. Granquist is not the first to do so, nor the...

by Murray J. Harris. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2023. Softcover. 90pp. $16.00. ISBN 9781666787849. Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper. The King James Version (KJV) was virtually unchallenged as an English Bible translation until 1885, when the complete translation of the Revised Version (RV) was published. But only when the New International Version (NIV) appeared in 1978 did the KJV lose its status as the most widely used English version. Most of the men involved in producing the NIV are now dead. This prompted Murray Harris, one of the translators who is now in his eighties, to tell his story...

by Benjamin C. F. Shaw. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2024. Softcover. 160 pp. $22.00. ISBN 9781514007587. Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper. A student at a Christian university, historically in the Reformed tradition, told me that his religion professor denied that the Bible is inerrant, accurate, and God’s Word. The professor also suggested that more books than the sixty-six (so, the New Testament apocrypha) could be considered authoritative Christian writings. Later that day I found Trustworthy in my mailbox. Focusing on the New Testament, it defends the very points that the professor denied, and denies what he asserts. The book...

professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of Trinity PRC in Hudsonville, Michigan   In the begynnyng was that worde and that worde was with god: and god was that worde. John 1:11 For we knowe wele that all thynges worke for the best unto them that love god, which also are called of purpose. Romans 8:28.   Nowe abideth fayth, hope, and love, even these thre: but the chefe of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13. For I knowe whom I have beleved, and am sure that he is able to...