Vol 28 Issue 12

The Rev. S. Cammenga calls the meeting to order, Psalter 94 is sung, Scripture is read and the president of the former classis offers prayer. Rev. J. De Jong pre­sides and Rev. Cammenga records the minutes. The cre­dentials are brought to the table and roll call reveals that all the churches are represented, except Bellflower. Lynden is the new-comer among us. The minutes of the former meeting are read and approved as recorded. The Stated Clerk reports that he has finished the work the last Classis assigned him. The church visitors for Man­hattan report, also the church visitors for Iowa-Minn....

The Peril Of Organization From the Moody Monthly we quote the following which in turn is a quotation on their part. “The Church for some reason or other is able to turn out more organizational machinery than any in­stitution known to man. We can draw up by-laws by the ton and appoint committees, bureaus and depart­ments . . . until it is no wonder that people day af­ter day are spiritually mangled in the wheels. “More and more I am convinced that if we spent half the time with people that we spend with bureaus and departments, the world would...

Let us take notice. Speaking of the new Cove­nant, the Lord says to His people: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put their laws in their mind . . .” This, “I will put my laws in their mind,” is a declaration that tells what the Lord will do. We deal here then with a promise not of a shadow salvation but of the true. By this promise the Lord binds Himself to the house of Israel and Judah to truly save them. The...

To properly understand this rather well-known pas­sage of the Word of God we must not lose sight of its place in the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in that section of Jesus’ teaching in which He sets forth in detail the righteousness of the Kingdom of God in the hearts of the meek, the poor in spirit, the pure of heart and the peacemakers. None must think that such meekness, and being poor in spirit can be brought to perfection apart from the law of God. It is true that no one is justified by works of law....

The closing remarks of our last article were not calculated to espouse the idea that we neither have nor can obtain teachers that are qualified to teach in a Protestant Reformed School. If such were our contention, we would also have to contend for the closing of our schools, or at least for the removal of the “Protestant Reformed” from their name. We rather meant to emphasize the idea that this matter of Protestant Reformed teachers is not as simple as we sometimes imagine. The recipe is not: mix one Pro­testant Reformed person with a desire to teach plus two,...

Brother Cammenga has some difficulty with my interpretation of Genesis 15, especially, according to him, if I maintain that the covenant is strictly uni­lateral in its establishment so that we cannot speak of parties in the covenant of God, “the name cove­nant becomes then so unreal, so out of order and God is a God of order.” And he “cannot imagine a cove­nant with only one party.” In answer, I would say that I cannot imagine either a covenant with only one party, or that is es­tablished by only one party if: 1. we conceive of the covenant as a sort of...

In the last Concordia, the Rev. De Jong promises to give us an explanation of the matter concerning the letter Prof. Holwerda wrote to the immigrants in Canada. Of this I am glad. For I like to have full confidence in the brethren, and this is simply a spiritual impossibility as long as the statements which Holwerda alleges that the brethren De Jong and Kok have made are not contra­dicted. In his introductory article the Rev. De Jong ex­presses the fear that his explanation may evoke more controversy. I do not see why it should. The matter, it seems to...

Just a few more passages from Holy Writ I will quote, in order to show that promises and predictions are always the same in Scripture, and that there are neither promises nor predictions for anyone but be­lievers, that is, therefore, the elect. The first passage I refer to is Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” In this verse we have the promise of rest. And rest is, of course, both a pre­sent blessing as well as a future boon. It includes rest for the soul in the...