All Articles For Petter Andrew

The subject as above expressed may at first sight seem somewhat ambiguous, yet the subject thus stated expresses a popular conception and it is of that popular conception that this article treats. Strictly speaking we would not speak of a social calling of the church for she as instituted is limited to the task of ministering the Word of God to her members and by that Word she labors to bring to manifestation herself as the body of Christ inculcating the principle by which this life is controlled. So that in respect to the broad social sphere the church as...

We received the following communication: Rev. H. Hoeksema, Editor of the Standard Bearer, Esteemed Editor: The Men’s Society of Oskaloosa has appointed me to lay before you a question with the explanations necessary to elucidate the question. I shall do my best. The passage is Ephesians 2:11-19. The question is: “What was the real nature of the enmity and also of the peace here spoken of and what was its deepest cause? We reject the explanation that the partition was caused by the hopeless obscuration of the Old Testament Gospel by the formalistic Jews. We also consider it impossible that...

As I face the task of writing an article of this nature I am keenly aware of my limited qualifications for such work, firstly because it is on material quite foreign to a minister’s regular field, and secondly, it is a relatively new subject among us, having been introduced only recently by Rev. Kok in Our Church News. I will however write in the hope that it may provoke a fruitful discussion among us, and in the Standard Bearer, if it does not dislocate the Editor’s plan, or interfere with his policy. In order to see our problem it is...

This general expression scarcely needs introduction because of its familiarity. However in general we may and usually do use it to differentiate and to express the general, the peoples’ view of things as distinct from the private opinion, that is, the opinion which private persons hold for themselves, of the initiates the opinion of persons who are in a position to know what the general public does not. The possibility of public opinion lies in the fact that people, men taken together are an essential unity, created to live in relation to each other and to be mutually or to...

The difficulty of training children is well-nigh proverbial. To this task perhaps more than to any other the telling Dutch proverb is often applied: “The best skippers are those looking on from shore.” And we have perhaps heard the moral story of the man who went to his neighbor, the father of twelve, with a complaint that he could not manage his child and would like some advice. “Oh, but you are at the wrong address,” said the well-blessed parent. “I recommend to you the neighbor across the street.” “But”, said the searcher for advice, “that man has no children...