All Articles For Rainey, Philip

The letter from Manuel Kuhs together with Professor Dykstra’s reply I found thought-provoking (SB, October 1, 2018). Please permit me to address something in the reply I found confusing. The professor believes that one’s statements can be “out of harmony with the Reformed confessions” yet not contradict the confessions. The statements judged to be “out of harmony with the Reformed confessions” and that consequently compromised the doctrine of justification by faith alone, in his view, do not contradict the confessions. He writes: “If the teaching went farther and the logical conclusions were completely drawn out, it would eventually contradict these...

The Presbyterian Philosopher: The Authorized Biography of Gordon H. Clark, by Douglas J. Douma. Wipf & Stock Publishers: Eugene, OR, 2017. Pp. 292. [Reviewed by Philip Rainey, member of First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI.] A book review about a Presbyterian (and not only so, but a philosopher!) might seem misplaced in a Reformed magazine such as the Standard Bearer. Such a view would be understandable, but it would also be incorrect. For there is much in this book that is instructive for Reformed Christians in general and the readership of this magazine in particular. Not a few of the...

Mr. Rainey is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Best of the Reformed Journal, editors James D. Bratt and Ronald A. Wells (William B. Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, MI, 2011), 343pp. [Reviewed by Philip Rainey.] This volume is a representative collection of articles taken from the Reformed Journal, a magazine published from 1951 to 1990 by Eerdmans Publishing. The collection of ninety articles commemorates the centennial of the company. The value of the book lies not in the profound theological insights it contains, but rather in that the collection of articles represents the changing theology...

I appreciate the discussion between Brendan Looyenga and Rev. Spronk regarding our critique of evolutionary science (SB, July 2014). Dr. Looyenga argues: “the problem with atheistic science is not its failure at logic, but rather its failure to comport with the truths of Scripture.” I suggest the problem with atheistic science is both its failure at logic and its failure to comport with Scripture. Atheistic science, in common with empirical science as a whole, has for its fundamental premise that true knowledge of the physical world is based on sense experience. The fundamental axiom of empirical science is that truth...

Mr. Rainey is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms, by Michael Lefebvre (Scotland, Christian Focus Publications Ltd. 2010), pp. 160. [Reviewed by Philip Rainey.] This is a small book, but with some very big and exciting ideas about the songs we sing in congregational worship. Michael Lefebvre is a convinced Psalm-singer and it is his purpose to demonstrate God’s purpose in giving us the psalms and how He means us to use them in our public worship. The book is, therefore, both a call to recover biblical worship, and...

May I comment on Rev. Cory Griess’ article on psalm-singing (SB, October 15, 2012). First of all, I commend Rev. Griess for the article, together with the recent articles in his rubric “O Come Let Us Worship.” I have found them both thought-provoking and profit­able. That said, I believe Rev. Griess’ good principles on biblical worship are fatally weakened by his claim that “It [the Synod of Dordt] did not advocate the notion that the regulative principle demanded exclusive psalmody” (p. 33). I do not see how we can maintain psalm-singing in our churches without holding to exclusive psalmody. Is...

Mr. Rainey is an elder in the CPRC NI. The 9th Biennial BRF Family Conference was held from August 5 to August 12. The venue this year was Cloverley Hall Conference Centre, located between Whitchurch and Market Drayton in the heart of the Shropshire countryside in western England. The Victorian building had originally been the servants’ quarters for the lord and lady of the manor, before becoming a Boarding School and now a conference centre. Almost one hundred people attended the conference, and, like previous BRF conferences, this year’s was truly international. There were representatives from all parts of the...