All Articles For Langerak, Nathan

There is a raging controversy today in most Reformed and Presbyterian churches over the heresy of the federal vision, except in the Canadian Reformed Churches (CanRC). According to two of their professors, in these churches “federal vision is not a raging controversy,” but they sympathize with some federal vision emphases. This came out in the recent interview of two CanRC professors by a classis of the United Reformed Churches of North America (URCNA), as reported in the March 10, 2010 issue ofChristian Renewal. The magazine reported that Classis Southwest of the URCNA put sixteen questions, eight of which are recorded...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2010, p. 132. A Curious Charge I have been examining the report on the federal vision received for information at the 2010 Synod of the URC. The report is dangerously flawed because, while it criticizes the federal vision for its heretical doctrine of justification by faith and works, it leaves the vicious root of this heresy in the federal vision’s erroneous doctrine of the conditional covenant untouched. The federal vision teaches that every baptized child is a member of the covenant; that every baptized child receives the promise of the covenant; and that...

Previous article in this series: December 1, 2010, p. 108. In the first article, I introduced an analysis of the recent synodical report of the United Reformed Churches (URC) on the federal vision heresy. The 2010 Synod of the URC received the report for information and adopted the fifteen doctrinal recommendations of the report.¹ I said that the report is fatally flawed and dangerous because, while the report declares certain federal vision teachings to be contrary to the Reformed creeds, it leaves untouched the vicious root of that heresy in the federal vision’s doctrine of the covenant. What the report...

Another study report among many such reports by Reformed and Presbyterian denominations on the federal vision—the heretical movement that for more than ten years has plagued Reformed and Presbyterian churches— has arrived on the ecclesiastical scene. This sixty-page document is courtesy of the United Reformed Churches (URC). At her 2007 Synod Schererville the URC appointed a fourteen-member committee to study the issue of the federal vision and report to Synod 2010. That Synod 2007 appoint a study committee to examine by the Word of God and our Confessions the teachings of the so-called Federal Vision and other like teachings on...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church in South Holland, Illinois. Heartwarming. . . I must confess that in reading World magazine I usually skip the movie reviews. I am amazed that in a magazine that touts its Christian credentials there are several pages of movie reviews. Usually, with euphonic caveats to be discerning, World recommends such for the entertainment of its ostensibly Christian readership. The very presence of these reviews demonstrates that the prophet Herman Hoeksema was right in his warning that common grace is a massive triple breach in the walls of the antithesis that...

Punted In a sad, appalling, but entirely predictable story, the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) Synod 2010 rejected the appeal of emeritus CRC minister Rev. Neal Punt against the decision of Classis Holland upholding the rank Arminian teachings of prominent CRC minister Rev. Leonard J. Vander Zee, director of the editorial department for Faith Alive Christian Resources (FARC). This is not the first time the issue of the extent of Christ’s atonement has come up for debate in the CRC. The appeal of Rev. Neal Punt raises the history of Harold Dekker, who taught that God loved all men with a...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church in South Holland, Illionois. The Oppositions of Science Falsely So-Called In an astoundingly candid article in the Grand Rapids Press entitled “150th birthday of ‘On the Origin of Species’ prompts area colleges to assess Darwin’s impact,” the author of the article exposes the dominance of Darwinian evolution on Christian college campuses. The title is a reference to the book On the Origin of Species by the unbeliever Charles Darwin, in which he rejects the history of creation as it is given in the Scriptures and instead teaches what has become...

Previous article in this series: October 1, 2011, p. 10. Sixty years ago a steadfast friend of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) came into being. It is the anniversary of our friend, the Declaration of Principles (Declaration), that we celebrated in the last article. Remembering that anniversary is remembering a significant event. Rev. Herman Hoeksema, and others with him, maintained that the document was “one of the most important documents that was ever adopted by our churches” (34.11:244). It was the settled and binding decision of the PRC on “one aspect of ‘common grace'” that represented the culmination of years...

A significant anniversary is upon us. On October 3, 2011, the Declaration of Principles of the Protestant Reformed Churches (Declaration) will be sixty years old. As is typical at anniversaries, we will reminisce about the life of this important friend of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). It is fitting as well that this reminiscence be done in the Standard Bearer (SB). The SB and the Declaration have always been close friends. When its friend was attacked, the SB faithfully defended her. When its friend triumphed, the SB rejoiced with her. And now on her sixtieth anniversary it is fitting that...