All Articles For Vermeer L

President, Delegates to our Convention, Friends: I am grateful for the oppor­tunity of addressing you this afternoon, for thus 1 am speaking to the future generation of our Protes­tant Reformed Churches. I am also deeply thankful to the committee of Oak Lawn for giving me the opportun­ity of speaking oil this sub­ject you have chosen, name­ly: “Thoroughly Equipped to Maintain the Truth”. I find the subject to be very appropriate and fitting for such an occasion as this. You are still young and have received the truth from earliest infancy, both at home, in the church and in the school....

Before we set out to treat this subject as such, it is well that we explain the subject we desire to treat. This essay COULD deal with the church, as within her own domain social questions are continually put before us demanding an answer. Questions as to the home and the social functions of the members of the church, are continually asked. The questions as to society life within the domain of the church, I say, COULD be treated under the topic assigned to us. But we do not believe that is the implication of the subject given us for...

When we speak of obedience as a Christian virtue, we do not thereby imply that obedience can be anything else than a Christian virtue. Obedience is a virtue and obedience is therefore only Christian. One who is not a Christian cannot possess virtue, nor can such a one therefore obey. Principally obedience is the fruit of the sanctifying spirit of grace according to I Peter 1:2, and deals with our attitude toward the authority of the Most High God. So that we may safely say that obedience can only be viewed as a Christian virtue and can be no otherwise....

In this essays we do not contemplate speaking about a nationality or a certain country in particular, but we will confine ourselves to the “ism,” the “tenet,” or the ideology called communism. This ideology of communism is defined in Webster’s dictionary, “as a scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all.” First of all, let us not fail to notice that from a...

The subject assigned to us touches upon many practical problems in the matter of giving relief to the poor, but it also touches upon the God-ordained office of mercy, as instituted in the Church of God by her head Jesus Christ. Especially in our day can such a discussion of Relief be of immense value, for many false theories and practices exist that should be abhorred by the people of God, and concerning which they should repent and return unto the way of Jehovah. Often Relief is given the poor by both the government and the Deaconate, as though both...

Having been asked to contribute a few articles this summer for our Standard Bearer, I gladly do this, though I am not an associate editor. And I thought it about time that we get some information to our reading public concerning the situation in our western churches. We propose to take a short tour of our churches in northwest Iowa as well as our newest addition to our church group in Edgerton, Minnesota. The best route to take in our jaunt will be the alphabetical route. We therefore begin in Doon. This congregation is one of the oldest in our...

Upon first impression, when reading this theme, we might think that “Idolatry” and “Image-Worship” are one and the same thing. This however is not the case. Surely there is close connection, even as there is close connection between, all the commandments of God, yea, of the entire word of God. Even as God is one, so His entire revelation one. Yet there is a great distinction, also between Idolatry and Image-worship, which becomes apparent immediately upon reading of the two commandments in the table of the Law of God. The very fact that God has commanded first of all: “Thou...

During the early stages of the history of our Prot. Ref. Churches, all our churches were very much acquainted with “Sermon Reading.” This was due to a lack of students, or because of the distance of our vacant congregations from our School in Grand Rapids. Then one of the Elders in the church took a sermon, for which he sought sometimes all the week through, because of the lack of good ones, and he would read that sermon to the congregation on the Sabbath. He would do this of course upon the authority of the consistory. However, this was usually...

In this essay we will not take up too much space to disprove the contention that there is disharmony between Paul’s assertion “that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” and the assertion of James: “by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” We will try and confine ourselves positively to the idea of faith and works in the epistle of James, and only consult other parts of scripture, including that written by Paul, only to make clearer the beautiful truth as expressed by the inspired James. Sufficient to state here, that...

When the Scriptures speak of a “son” then it often refers to the male offspring of another person. This reference to a male offspring is not always the meaning however of the term “son”, simply because the term “perdition,” refers not to a person, but to a condition or state. In fact it is well to bear in mind that the term “son” is often used differently than merely meaning the male offspring of another person. Often Scripture for instance used the term “son” to denote membership in a certain class or group of persons, as in the common phrase...