All Articles For Smidstra, Justin

The reading of good, spiritually edifying literature is a subject that has been addressed a number of times at the RFPA’s annual meeting. Over the course of past six years, several speeches have been given on the topic of reading. There are good reasons for that. The RFPA’s mission is to publish sound Reformed literature for the Reformed believer. The reading of good, spiritually edifying books is important for the spiritual well-being of our homes and churches. We also need encouragement to read. There is an observable decline in reading today. This continues to be a concern to the RFPA....

We know Ulrich Zwingli as one of the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation. When speaking of the men God raised up to reform His church, we mention the names of such men as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli all in the same breath. Yet, of these three servants of God, Zwingli is perhaps the least known to us. Zwingli was powerfully used by God to inaugurate the reformation of the church in Switzerland. Zwingli’s ministry laid foundations upon which the next generation of Reformers built. It is worth our while to become more familiar with this servant...

Battle for Sovereign Grace in the Covenant, The Declaration of Principles, by David J. Engelsma. Re­formed Free Publishing Association, Jenison, MI. 2013. [Reviewed by Justin Smidstra.] The Battle for Sovereign Grace in the Covenant is a timely publication. The book provides an ex­amination of the controversy over the doctrine of the covenant. This treatment is merited not only by the present need to preserve the history of the schism of 1953, which becomes more distant with each passing generation, but also by the present ecclesiastical landscape, a landscape in which conditional covenant theology is rampant even within the walls of...