Vol 23 Issue 12

Correspondence . . . . We received a letter reflecting on the remarks we made concerning the Banner’s Meditation department and its author. We take the opportunity to answer it here. The letter read in part as follows: Dear Brother: Reading, Periscope, in the Standard Bearer of Feb. 15. . . . I notice your note of surprise. . . .that there is very seldom a voice of protest raised. . . . Will you kindly inform me where such a voice of protest or rebellion can be raised? Do you imagine that the Banner would and dares to place...

“Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” James 1:18 In the verses 18-16 we are taught that the Lord cannot be tempted with evil and therefore tempteth no man. The Lord is too pure of eyes to behold iniquity, Sin is far from Him. Therefore the wages of sin is death; sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. This thought is further confirmed by James in verse 17 which sets forth the unchangeable goodness and perfection of the Lord. Also verse 18...

In our societies, organized for the purpose of studying the Word of God, the after-recess program is very often quite a problem. We are all agreed without a doubt that the after-recess program is not and should not be intended for mere entertainment. The purpose of this program as well as the study of God’s Word in the first part of our meetings should be to build one another in the faith. Our Confessions, which we may find conveniently located in the back part of our Psalters provide us with a wealth of material for after-recess discussions. How many readers...

As we have seen, I Samuel 10:8-13:8 forms a passage that presents certain difficulties rising from Samuel’s command to Saul. This command having been dealt with and these difficulties having been explained and thereby removed, let us take up the thread of the narrative, where we broke off. Saul had been anointed and charged by Samuel in secret. In addition, the unbelieving king had been provided with a mass of indisputable evidence that Samuel truly was God’s prophet and that therefore in him, men, and in particular the king, verily had to do with God. We now come to the section...

The dates of his pontificate are 1458-1464. His full name was Aeneas Sylvius de’ Piccolomini. As his name indicates, he was an Italian. He was of noble birth, though his parents, who had been banished from Siena, were poor. Aeneas has been given a place among the successful popes. But he was without principle and a profligate. He had illegitimate children before he became pope. For his love affairs were many. One of his sons was born in Scotland, and the other in Strassburg, by an Englishwoman. But Tie was able and versatile. He mastered Greek in Florence. In the...

Dr. H. Bouwman, as we have seen, tried to reason the crooked thing straight—the thing: deposition of office bearers by Classis—by arguing the point that, in a crisis, as when there is need of a power to depose a rebellious consistory, all the consistories transfer their key-power to the Classis (Synod), and thereby bring it into being as a major consistory with key-power to depose office bearers. As was stated, this teaching according to which the major assemblies (Cassis and Synod) are major consistories is also that of Rev. Gerrit Hoeksema and he got it from the late Prof. Heyns....

The times in which we live make the impression on many people of God, who take the Word of God and the promise of the coming of Christ seriously, that they are, in a special sense of the word “eschatological”, precursory to the end of all things. More than once, not only in our part of the world, but also, and especially, in the old world, this impression is voiced. I say “impression,” for the expectation and hope that the coming of the Lord is near is by no means always the result of a process of reasoning in which...

Replying to my remarks of sometime ago under the caption “Smoke Screen?” the Rev. L. Doekes writes, in De Reformatie of Feb. 15, 1947, as follows: (DUTCH REMOVED) According to promise, we hereby offer those of our readers that are not sufficiently versed in the Dutch language to follow the Rev. Doekes’ remarks a brief translation: LIGHT IN THE FOG In “The Standard Bearer” and in our “Reformatie”, The Rev. H. Hoeksema of Grand Rapids made a few remarks about an expression in my paper “The Old Battle”, read on the day of our Theological Seminary. With appreciation and gratitude...

And it was about the sixth hour, and there teas darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened. Luke 23:44, 45 The sixth hour! High noon it was on Calvary. Then, those that understood the Scriptures must have recognized a fulfillment of the Word of the Lord, through His servant Amos, and also through others: “I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.” There was darkness over all the earth. . . . And the sun was darkened. Noon at Calvary! Silence!...