All Articles For Veldman R.

An object of faith. That the Bible as we have it today is indeed the infallible Word of God, our only and complete rule of faith and conduct, essentially different from all other writings in history, we apprehend only by faith? Never do we come to this conviction in the presumptuous way modern theology imagines it should be reached. According to the latter it is not scholarly and scientific and proper to approach the Bible with a priori prejudices in the matter. In seeking to determine the real character and value of Scripture we should approach it with an open...

Just how and why the word “sacrament” came to be used for the divine institutions we now know by that name is not entirely clear. The word itself is not taken from Scripture. That, however, need not condemn its use. Other terms have found their way into Reformed theology which are not taken directly from the Word of God. “Sacrament” is from the Latin “saeramentum,” meaning: something that is consecrated, a consecration. In early times it designated the sum of money deposited in court by both plaintiff and defendant previous to the trial of a case and kept in some...

John Calvin in his own characteristic manner speaks of this doctrine as “the error entertained by some unskillful persons who ignorantly imagine that in the interval between death and the judgment the soul sleeps,” an “absurd dogma of babblers,” and a “madness which should be severely repressed.” It concerns itself with the intermediate state, which is, as Calvin puts it, the interval between death and judgment, between our departure from this life and the consummation of all things in the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Three days and three nights in the belly of a fish! But how? Was he alive during that three day entombment, as the consensus has always been among students of the Bible? Or is it possible that he was dead, and that the church has been in error on this point? I should like to begin with a few general observations. First, we are not questioning the fact as such that the prophet of...

DEBATE—AFFIRMATIVE: We have the children; the material means are at our disposal; the teachers can be obtained; hence, the possibility is there. That is the thrust of this wherever possible. The question is: Should we, the way being open, establish schools of our own, where our Protestant Reformed children can be instructed by Protestant Reformed men and women on the basis of what we believe to be the unadulterated Reformed truth? The negative has the burden of showing why this is neither desirable nor mandatory. The affirmative answers this question with an unequivocal: Yes! And gladly we assume the burden...

DEBATE—Negative Rebuttal There are of course a good many things in the article of my opponent with which I can heartily agree. A number of things are simply not debatable among us. We knew this before the debate ever started. After all both the affirmative and the negative claim to love the Protestant Reformed truth and the cause of our churches. Besides in our debate we must and do assume that all of us have the true interest of the cause and the spiritual welfare of our people at heart. But even though the foregoing is true, that does not...

Organization— The Masonic lodge is only one of some 800 secret societies in these United States of America. Nearly half of our adult population, including multitudes of our most prominent and influential people, politicians, business men, preachers, lawyers, judges, etc. are affiliated with these numerous secret orders for both men and women. Of these 800 secret societies Masonry is the oldest, largest and most influential. It is the parent of all secret orders, of which all the rest are born and after which all the others are patterned. When, therefore, you speak of Freemasonry you speak of lodgism in general....

Affirmative. Three hundred years ago our Reformed fathers, in synodical session at Dordrecht, ordained that once each Sunday the sermon material should be based on a Lord’s Day of our Heidelberg Catechism instead of on the Word of God directly. Did they err in so decreeing? Was it wisdom on their part, to lead the church of many ages in this direction? Does the preaching of the Catechism provide the church of Christ with what she needs to have light on her way and to grow in the grace and knowledge of her Lord and Savior? Or does it deprive...

Affirmative Rebuttal: Had the negative presented his arguments orally instead of on paper, I would open this rebuttal by saying: I enjoyed listening, brother. I invariably do. There is something about the style and method of the Rev. Petter that is truly refreshing and makes him pleasant to hear and read. However, when in that same Petterian style he ends his argument with the statement, as bold as it is sweeping, “These many arguments will, I trust, elicit from all those competent to judge, the verdict that notwithstanding the unsurpassed beauty, the almost prophetic spirit, power and discernment that mark...

Pacifism, from the Latin pax (peace) and ficus (to make), an “ism” which has asserted itself more and more since the turn of the century, is the doctrine that opposes war as inherently wrong, works for peace between the nations, and in many cases, with or without reservations, advocates the refusal on the part of the individual to actively participate in any given conflict between one’s own country and another. I say “in many cases”, because there is a form of pacifism that would not subscribe to the last part of the above definition and does not advocate the right...