All Articles For I Corinthians

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins…. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. I Corinthians 15:17, 20 Our lives are filled with uncertainty. So many changes take place, many of them unexpected. So many of our plans fall to pieces. So many of our hopes are dashed. And, frequently, we are considering and pondering different possibilities and scenarios. What if…? What if…? All sorts of hypothetical situations—some of which may cause much worry, anxiety, and fear. But the scenario that the...

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. I Corinthians 12:3 In this verse of Holy Scripture we have the fundamental rule of the gospel. By this rule one who is of Christ is distinguished from him who is not of Christ, and the one born of the Spirit from him who is not born of the Spirit. This rule is never set aside. It holds true today and also will be true in...

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:58 The turn of the calendar furnishes us another occasion to examine the past year and devote ourselves again in this new year to abounding in the work of the Lord. However, when we look at ourselves, we might come to the conclusion that we cannot abound in the work of the Lord and that our fight against sin and the devil and our own sinful flesh is...

This is the abbreviated text of the pre-synodical sermon that Rev. Slopsema, as President of Synod 2011, preached on June 11, 2012 in the Crete (IL) Protestant Reformed Church.   Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:58 Thanks be to God! In the previous verse the apostle Paul gives thanks to God for the victory we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. This victory is the victory over death by the resurrection of the...

Previous article in this series: February 15, 2012, p. 232. The life we believers now have in Christ is a life that is actually higher than that which Adam had before the fall. We have an everlasting, heavenly life. Such a life Adam outside of Christ never could have obtained. It could be enjoyed only in the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. Everlasting life: A life that cannot be lost There was a difference between the life that Adam had and what the Bible refers to as “everlasting life.” The life that is everlasting cannot be lost. Adam’s life...

The second semester of instruction in our Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary is well underway. After the holiday break, professors and students alike are “hitting the books” once more. The second semester was preceded by the annual interim course. By rotation it fell to the undersigned to teach the interim. The subject of the interim course was “Contemporary Roman Catholic Theology.” Together professor and class examined the distinctive doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church in the light of history and Holy Scripture. We concluded that, beyond doubt, Rome has not changed. Rome holds today the same false doctrines and...

“I write unto you, young men….” Where are you, boys? Are you turning into young men? Where are you, young men? Are you turning into men? What kind of question is that? Is not this a matter of nature? Do not boys just grow up into young men, and young men into men? No, they do not. Men appear taller, bigger, older than their younger counterparts. But watch and listen. Listening to their language and watching their actions will convince you that inside the skin of many grown men are only boys. They are more interested in games of every...

Denomination Activities On Tuesday, November 15, and Wednesday, November 16, Revs. G. Eriks and K. Koole were in Atlanta, GA on behalf of our denomination’s Contact Committee to represent our churches as observers to the annual meeting of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, as authorized by this year’s synod. For what this gathering of conservative Presbyterian and Reformed churches is all about, please confer Acts 2010, Arts. 22 and 27 (pp. 18, 21), and Acts 2011, Art. 34 (pp. 26-28). If you don’t have these Acts handy, we add here that this makes the second year these two...

Mission work is done in foreign lands with the goal of gathering the elect of God out of the nations of the earth. This is accomplished through faithful preaching of the gospel. The Spirit of Christ works mightily through this to bring the elect to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. But that in itself is not enough. In addition to the salvation of the elect, the goal of missions is also to gather God’s people together into congregations, for outside the instituted church there is no salvation (Belgic Confession of Faith, Art. 28). Churches must be organized. Congregations must...

The Presbyterian Church (USA) to Homosexual Officebearers: “You are free to be sexually active.” In 2010 the General Assembly of the PC(USA), a denomination with 2.3 million members, decided to remove a clause from its constitution that required ministers to “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” Removing this language would have the effect of allowing homosexual officebearers in the PC(USA) to have same-sex dating and “marriage” relationships. For this decision to take effect a majority of the denomination’s presbyteries needed to approve it. In 2010 Christianity Today reported the...