All Articles For I John

Postmillennialism in the Reformed churches teaches the saints to expect an earthly victory in the future before the coming of Christ. The majority of the human race will be converted to Christ and added to the church. The world will be “Christianized.” Christians will govern all nations, controlling all aspects of national life. Christians will dominate whatever ungodly remain, punishing them for misbehavior and compelling them to obey the laws of God. There will be no great departure from the faith by Christian churches and professing Christians in the future. There will be no Antichrist and antichristian world-kingdom in the...

Article 7. For in the first place, in these. falls he preserves in them the incorruptible seed of regeneration from perishing, or being totally lost; and again, by his Word and Spirit, certainly and effectually renews them to repentance, to a sincere and godly sorrow for their sins, that they may seek and obtain remission in the blood of the Mediator, may again experience the favor of a reconciled God, through faith adore his mercies, and henceforward more diligently work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. 

Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” I Peter 4:7 On the one hand, New Year’s Eve is apt to be an hour of reminiscence.* It is apt to be an hour in which we are inclined to glance back upon the way which we have traveled. Another year has again passed by. A year with many and various experiences. A year of joy and of sorrow, of laughter and of tears, of prosperity and of adversity, of health and...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. O God, to Thy Anointed King Give truth and righteousness; Thy people He will justly judge And give the poor redress. The poor man’s cause He will maintain, The needy He will bless, And He will break the strength of those Who would the poor oppress. (Psalter 193, stanzas 1 and 3, versification of Psalm 72 ) In these stanzas, and in Psalm 72, God’s saints express their confidence that Jehovah will care for His beloved poor through Christ, typified in Solomon, God’s anointed king. God’s certain care...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. As we make the transition in our doctrinal studies from Christology to soteriology, or the doctrine of salvation, we consider together the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That is fitting, because soteriology is the work of the Holy Spirit in applying the benefits of Christ to the elect. We read in Acts 2:1 that the Holy Spirit was poured out when the day of Pentecost was fully come, that is, when the day of the Old Testament Pentecost was fulfilled. It was therefore the morning of the next day, the...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. (Preceding article in series: August 2003, p. 452.) Some of our readers may not be comfortable with designating a special worship service in the established churches as a gospel service. This designation is intended to distinguish such a service from the regular worship services that take place twice every Lord’s Day. But, one might ask, if every worship service ought to include gospel preaching, and if the gospel is the good news of salvation that the pastor is commanded to bring every time he mounts the pulpit, why would...

God wills the salvation of all His elect children. He also wills that all His children have the assurance of their salvation. He wills that they have the assurance of their salvation as soon as they are saved and that they continue to have this certainty to their dying breath. The assurance of salvation is an integral part of salvation itself. The will of God that all His children enjoy the assurance of their salvation is an aspect of His Fatherly love in Christ for all of them. This will of God is not absolute and unqualified, so as never...

Many of the reputedly conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches are nourishing in their bosom an open, frontal attack on the gospel of salvation by sovereign grace. Seminary professors, ministers, and ruling elders publicly reject every one of the doctrines of grace, beginning with justification by faith alone. They deny that these doctrines hold in the sphere of the covenant of grace. Big names in the conservative Reformed realm plug their books. Powerful colleagues protect and defend them at the assemblies, if ever a layman screws up his courage and protests the heresy. Prominent seminaries pay their salaries. Other ministers and...

Previous article in this series: March 1, p. 244. In our last few articles we have been dealing with various statements found in a recently published book,Reformed Thought, a compilation of selected papers written by Dr. William Young over the past six decades. In these papers Young makes a number of references to Hoeksema and his covenant view, not commendatory by any stretch. He contends that Hoeksema’s view is to be identified with that of Dr. A. Kuyper and his presupposed regeneration doctrine, which view, according to Young, makes a man worthy of being thrown into the camp of Hyper-Covenantism....

Theme and Speeches “Ye shall be witnesses unto me,” declared the risen Lord to His eleven disciples, just moments before He ascended into heaven. According to Christ’s command, prophecy, and promise, His gospel, church, and kingdom have spread from Jerusalem to Judaea to Samaria and “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Today, the Christian church is “more global” than ever before, but the church’s official work in its missionary labors and the believer’s personal witness are as necessary as they have ever been. But what must we say as Christ’s witnesses? How must we witness? Where and...