Vol 21 Issue 20

The opening exercises were conducted by Rev. W. Hofman. After the singing of No. 223 from the Psalter, he reads a few verses of Hebrews 12 and leads in prayer. The credentials were read and received. Classis was then declared constituted. Classis asked Rev. De Wolf to take down the minutes seeing the president of the preceding Classis was not present. Rev. G. M. Ophoff and D. Jonker were given advisory vote. The minutes of the previous Classical meeting were read and approved. The reply of Hudsonville’s consistory did not prove to be satisfactory to Classis. Classis requests that Hudsonville...

As far as I know the above is still the name of the congregation of which the Rev. H. Danhof is pastor. Recently, however, there are all kinds of rumors afloat to the effect that efforts are being made to remove the word “protesting” from that name, to lead that church back into the fellowship of the Christian Reformed Churches, and thus to make it virtually, if not literally, confess that their stand in 1924 was an error, and that the “Three Points” adopted by the Synod of Kalamazoo are after all true doctrine. There are also rumors that the...

Apart from Christ Jesus he has no significance whatever. In fact he becomes a mere deceiver. This is true of all the prophets but especially true of John, since, as Christ had said, he is “more than a prophet.” When John was eight days old his father addresses him and says: “And thou, child, shalt be called a prophet of the Highest”. There were indeed many prophets of the Most High, but yet John is more than a prophet, for, as we read in Luke 1:76: “For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.”...

Should anyone ask you whether Christ assumed our human nature as an individual, a fellow man among men, or whether He merely assumed a general human nature, you would most likely express your assent with the former and reject that latter. The question comes down to this, did the Son of God have His own, individual human nature, or did He have a nature that is common to the human race? In answer to that you would no doubt say that He had His own human nature as a distinct individual among us. You would bolster your position by showing...

As was said, the essential divinity of Christ had to be asserted against the Monarchians and the Ebionists who saw in Christ only a second Moses and against the Gnostics who placed Christ in a class with the eons of their ideal world. Further, it was pointed out that at the beginning of the third century—circa 200—there were three Christologies contesting in Rome: 1) The Modalistic Monarchian also known as Patripassian and Cebellianism; 2) The Dynamic Monarchian; 3) The Logos Christology. It was the last-named that triumphed on the Council of Nicea 325. The Modalistic and Dynamic Monarchians had this...

The book of Judges divides into three parts: 1. Introduction; 2. the main body of the book; 3. the conclusion. The introduction includes the first two chapters, of which the first sets forth the condition of Israel after the death of Joshua as being that of inaction with respect to its divine calling. The task that remained to the tribes west of the Jordan was to prosecute the conquest by freeing their respective allotments from the remnants of the heathen tribes, and especially to cleanse the land of the altars and shrines of their pagan worship. But this was not...

Chapter 3: Dead to Sin (continued) This question, however, the apostle most emphatically answers in the negative. He does so, first of all, by an indignant “God forbid!” The apostle is horrified at the very thought that such a conclusion should be drawn from his doctrine of justification by faith. Not only so, but in this well-known, emphatic exclamation, he also expresses what must rise spontaneously from the heart of every justified believer when the possibility is suggested to him to continue in sin, in order that grace may abound. Such a possibility is far from his mind. It is...

From a very reliable source in the old country we learned a little about the deposition of Dr. Schilder and others, and the split that occurred in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. A brother wrote me that the Synod of the “Gereformeerde Kerken” in the old country adopted the Kuyperian view of “presupposed regeneration,” that is, the theory that infants are baptized on the ground of the presupposition that they are already regenerated; that Dr. Schilder and others disagreed, came into trouble with the Synod, not only because of this question, but also because of certain questions concerning church...

How superficially they quote Calvin, who try to make him say, as do the complainants, that God sincerely seeks and wills the salvation of all men; or that Scripture teaches the contradiction that, on the one hand God wills that all men shall be saved, and on the other hand wills the salvation of the elect; is evident to all that are acquainted with the works of the reformer. Fact is, and the fact is striking indeed, that the very same passages from Holy Writ to which the complainants appeal in support of their position that God sincerely seeks the...

I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. Ps. 119:101 Blessed Word of God! That, and the believer’s delight in it, expresses in brief the main theme of this particular section of the psalm. There is a good deal of similarity, and an intimate relation between this section and the preceding one. Both extol the Word of God because of its perfection: “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Yet, there is also a rather clear distinction. In the preceding passage the psalmist considered that Word...