Vol 22 Issue 20

Report of Classis East—Convened July 10, 1946 at Grand Rapids, Michigan Classis East met on July 10, 1946 at Fuller Ave. The meeting was begun with the singing of Psalter No. 203:1, 2 and 5. Rev. M. Schipper, who presided at the previous meeting of Classis, conducted the opening exercises. The credentials were read and received, showing that all the churches were represented at this meeting. Classis was then declared constituted. According to rotation Rev. H. Veldman is called upon to preside. He speaks a few words of welcome and expresses the desire of brotherly cooperation in the meetings of...

The Synod of our churches has come and is gone again: its acts are history. In due time these acts will appear so that you may be able to have a copy of them for yourselves, a copy of the official acts of our churches. In this connection I would say that it is not a very good sign that so very few avail themselves of the opportunity to buy a copy of these acts from year to year. Our Synods have decided from time to time to print 800 or more copies, but after sending the requisite amount to...

The apostle John is known for the depth of his thought and understanding of the words of Christ. This reveals itself especially in the fact that he seems to have chosen to record at length some of the more extensive discourses of Christ, whereas the other Gospel writers seem to have more an eye for the historical, the events, the happenings, the visible works of Christ. And as a consequence we have in John a rather simple vocabulary and grammar, by which John has left much of the depth of the truth unexpressed and as it were for the reader...

The Baptism Form speaks of baptism as a sign, but also as a seal of our entrance into God’s covenant. It does this by inference when it states that “Holy baptism witnesseth and sealeth unto us the washing away of our sins through Jesus Christ.” It speaks of baptism as a sign and seal of the cleansing from sin. And since through the cleansing from sin we are separated from the world and taken into God’s covenant, baptism is a sign and seal of our entrance into the covenant. It speaks also directly of this fact by saying, “God the...

The father of Reformed Church Polity is John Calvin. It was he, who, through, his insistence on the legal parity of the officebearers in the church, levelled, conceptionally, the Roman hierarchy to the ground and restored to the church its offices. The Roman Hierarchy, in its completed form, was an imposing structure. It rose, from the lower clergy as its base, through rank upon rank of dignitaries of always greater power, to its apex, the pope, the father of all, the vicegerent of Christ on earth. But this structure was a far cry from the pattern of church organization that...

We turn to the second verse of the first chapter of Ecclesiastes and read, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Doubtless, no other book in the Bible has suffered so many misapprehensions in a theological point of view, as the book of Ecclesiastes. It has been accused of many contradictions within itself, of being inconsistent, of lacking unity, and coherence on account of absence of plan and connection. The inspiration of its contents has been attacked. Very early this was doubted on account of the supposed moral levity and skepticism of its teachings—a skepticism...

We agree, then, with Dr. Bavinck, when he states that the covenant is the very essence of religion, of religion, that is, in the sense of fellowship with the living God. And we would express this somewhat more clearly and concisely by maintaining that the covenant is, essentially, fellowship with the ever blessed God. We also agree with Kuyper when he defines the covenant as an act of friendship. And again, we would emphasize this idea by insisting that the covenant itself is, essentially, a relation, a bond of friendship. Accordingly, we would define the idea of the covenant as...

In the Calvin Forum of May 1948, the Rev. P. Prins of Groningen, the Netherlands, writes about the situation of the Reformed Churches in the old country, particularly about the schism that occurred there, and especially about the decisions of the so-called “appeal-synod” of the synodicals, held in the first part of this year, which decisions we published some time ago in our Standard Bearer. He praises the conciliatory spirit and attitude of this synod as expressed in its decisions. And he complains about the uncharitable attitude assumed over against these decisions by the “liberated churches.” We quote him: “We...

For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them than believeth not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 8:16-19 Take heed, brethren! While it is called “Today” and you are in the house of the Son of God, exhort one another daily! Beware, all and each...