Vol 19 Issue 17

Esteemed Editor: May I again be privileged to use your paper to further substantiate statements which I made and which are seemingly assumed to have no basis in fact and remarks for which I supposedly must hang my head in shame? First of all I must say that it is not my intention in this controversy over the CLA to become personal in respect to those who disagree with me. Neither do I think we should stand on the heights and classify our opponents and call “shame, shame” or say that this or that is not to his credit or...

The Christian is solemnly called upon to walk in the way of sanctification. Sanctification certainly is an earmark of the redeemed child of God. By the fruits shall the tree be known. It is, however, not our purpose to write on the subject of sanctification proper, but as is evident from the title the incentive of such a walk. In particular we will try to show that such a holy walk stands in direct relation with doctrine. Occasionally we hear, and some of us perhaps even bosom the thought that sanctification has very little to do with doctrine. To be...

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...

God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. It is in this word of James that God is presented to us as the Holy being, Who cannot have fellowship with anything which is impure. It is contrary to the nature of our Holy God to seduce or allure men with evil designs. In that sense the Bible speaks of God as never tempting anyone. God is pure in His purposes and designs. But, again, God DOES tempt us, and have us tempted. With the purpose of demonstrating the superior quality of His work in the saints. Then...

To bring out this significance regard must be had to the character of this book. The character of the book has been variously defined. It has been described as an attempt “to furnish a new law which might be conducive to the interests of altered circumstances,” by another as, hortatory description, explanation and enforcement of the most essential contents of the covenant relations and covenant laws with emphatic prominence given to the spiritual principle of the law and its fulfillment. Lange comments on the purpose of the book as follows: “Deuteronomy. . . . the second law. But Deuteronomy is...

Calvin treats the subject of faith elaborately in his Institutes, Book III, chapter 2. Also according to him faith is both knowledge and confidence, and both are of a special, a higher kind than the knowledge and assurance of faith in general. Writes he: “Knowledge, as we call faith, we do not understand in the sense of comprehension, such as we have of those things that fall within the scope of human sensation. For this knowledge is even so far superior, that the mind of man must needs exceed and surpass itself, in order to attain to it. And even...

A rather striking illustration is used by Van Til to clarify his application of the “As If” theory. He criticizes Dr. Kuyper’s conception of “territories” (terreinen-leer), according to which the latter assigns to believers and unbelievers a certain common ground of living and cooperation. He, Van Til, does not agree with this theory, and admits that this conception of Kuyper’s is not to be harmonized with his doctrine oi the antithesis. I may remind our readers that we criticized this “terreinen-leer” of Dr. Kuyper’s long ago, and even before attention was called to this element in Kuyper’s teaching in the...