Vol 27 Issue 06

The End of the Ages? “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:37-39. “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And...

My title in this case is not my subject. I am not going to write about “an interlude”, but rather my article is an interlude in the series with which I was busy. I want to interrupt my series on “Church Membership” to write about the controversial discussion which is being carried on between our churches and the Liberated, and which has also been transferred into our own circles and is becoming an intra-church controversy. But I want to write about it from the viewpoint of “In His Fear”. The occasion of this writing is a matter of personal experience...

We now come to our exposition of the twenty-third verse of the 10th chapter of Hebrews. This verse reads as follows: “Let us hold fast the confession of the (our) unwavering hope, for He that hath promised is faithful.” At the outset of this article we would notice that the writer does not connect our verse to the foregoing verses with any particle such as “for” or “wherefore”, nor with a conjunction such as “and”. This lack of any such connection of a grammatical nature does not mean that this verse is the beginning of a new and different subject....

Some time ago Rev. Petter informed his readers that he purposed to write a series of articles on “The Brief Declaration”. The “Concordia” for Nov. 9 contains Rev. Petter’s fourth installment of this series. It, too, reveals that Rev. Petter’s choice of the title, “The Brief Declaration” is a mistake. He still is not treating the “Declaration”. In his latest article he is occupied with the Liberated reaction to our tentative adoption of “The New Declaration”. Perhaps the worst feature of this article is that it cannot help but leave the impression on the thoughtful readers of the “Concordia” that...

In the light of the latest history of our Protestant Reformed Churches in Hamilton, Canada, the undersigned wishes to acquaint our people with the following resume. All of us are undoubtedly interested in the events which have transpired in this Canadian world city. It will be difficult perhaps to harmonize the report which the undersigned offers our people in this article with Rev. De Jong’s and Rev. Kok’s reception in the Netherlands, according to the articles of Rev. De Jong in Concordia. Rev. De Jong’s description of the Liberated Churches in the Netherlands is surely optimistic. It is his conviction...

Finally, I must say a few words about Mr. Van Spronsen’s conception of the true church. Writes he: “I believe if there is one important question which you need to study, it is the question: ‘What is the church?; Where is the true church in America?’ This question must become an urgent one among you. You have to come so far that you dare to say: ‘We are the true church here.’ If you say this, you speak the language of the fathers who state that it can easily be determined where at a certain place the true church is....

Misleading is the letter too, because after all Mr. Van Spronsen defends his own covenant view, which is the Heynsian view, over against ours. And thus after all he tries to persuade our people to adopt his conception. Writes he: “Furthermore, I hope, and pray God for it, that your ministers do not preach a nonconditional covenant. Because Scripture knows no covenant without conditions. At home I read with my wife always through the entire Bible, from Genesis through Revelation. I believe we do this now for the seventeenth time, but I maintain that wherever God gives His promise this...

Since, however, no one has thus far discussed the contents of the Declaration of Principles, the Standard Bearer proposes to do so. But first of all, I want to reflect upon what is in my opinion a very misleading letter by Mr. K. C. Van Spronsen, a letter which was published in Concordia. I say that this letter is misleading because it attacks the Declaration of Principles without once referring to the Confessions. This is misleading because the Declaration of Principles does not mean to be anything at all but the Confessions themselves. But although Mr. Van Spronsen does not...

This is really the burning question today. It is not a burning question for us as Protestant Reformed Churches, for we were always satisfied with the Three Forms of Unify, and consider ourselves to be bound by them alone. And we still are. That we want to be bound by nothing else than the Confessions is very plain from the Declaration of Principles. After all, the only question concerning this Declaration is whether it is according to the Confessions, or not. If it is not, we do not want it. In as far as it is not let us criticize...