All Articles For Lubbers, George C

It is of the utmost importance for the correct un­derstanding of I John 2:12-14 that close attention be paid to the exact wording of it. We will, therefore, quote this passage in full. It reads as follows: “I write you children because your sins are forgiven for His Name’s sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the evil one.

More and more we are reminded that the Conven­tion time of our Federation of Protestant Reformed Young Peoples’ Societies is again at hand. In our mind’s eye we see loaded busses with happy and youth­fully carefree Covenant youth turning their faces to­ward Hull, Iowa. From California, Washington, Mon­tana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan they come.

In our former essay, written by us on this Scrip­ture passage, we called attention particularly to the term “children”, “fathers” and “young men” in our text.

There is a fundamental truth of Scripture which must ever be kept in mind, shall we rightly understand the Word of God and rightly divide it. I refer, of course, to the fact that there are a two-fold people in the world: the children of God and the children of the devil. This we read in I John 3:10, “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. God has put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, when he preached and revealed the first gospel, the Protevangel, to...

There is still a matter which is of extreme importance for the believing church of God in this world which Paul must “make known” to the Corinthians. He is finished with his polemic against the skeptics who asked: with what kind of body do the dead rise and how will this take place.

I Corinthians 15:39-49 Paul is answering the two questions which he raised in verse 35. The questions are: 1. How are the dead raised up? 2. With what body do they come forth?

We now come to the discussion of the particular elements taught by Paul in this passage concerning the manner of the resurrection from the dead. We have noticed in the former essay that Paul is an­swering the skeptic, and that he does this not on the basis of unbelief, but rather on the basis of faith in the revelation of God in Christ as well as the revelation of God in all of the works of His hands.

We should remember that we have now come to con­sider the last major section of I Corinthians 15. In this part Paul discloses some more mysteries of the resurrection of the dead. Paul is indeed like a scribes which is instructed unto the kingdom, and like a man who is a householder, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old!

The undersigned intends to write a series of pop­ular expositions on the first epistle of Peter during the next few months. These articles do not intend to be technical exegesis; such is the task of the min­ister in his study. There will be as little of this “work­shop” in these articles as possible. Not that these art­icles are not based on as careful exegesis as this writ­er can perform, but these exegetical labors will not stand in the foreground.

In this passage we are told more about the grand and exalted “status quo” of the Church of Jesus Christ as she lives under the Spirit of sanctification. In our last essay on this chapter we noticed the church stands and praises God in the face of Jesus Christ, since He has begotten her unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a fact, an accomplished fact, that the church, believers in Christ are a new creation in Christ.