Vol 30 Issue 12

Ghysel’s Hodge-podge

Article 11. “On the other hand, the consistory, as representing the congregation, shall also be bound to provide for the proper support of its ministers, and shall not dismiss them from service without the knowledge and approbation of the classis and of the delegates of the (particular) synod.” 

Article 7. Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, he hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of his own will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault, from their primitive state of rectitude, into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the mediator and head of the elect, and the foundation of salvation. 

Other questions that arose. 

Last time, because we did not have at our command the documents of the Classical sessions from April through October, we quoted from memory the thrust of the protests of the Rev. Hoeksema and the Rev. Ophoff.  Then we made the claim that these protests clearly reveal that they were not protesting to Classis against Rev. De Wolf but against that faction of the consistory which supported him in his heretical statements. 

In trouble His people poured out their hearts to Him when His chastening was upon them. Like a pregnant woman is in pain and cries out in her pangs when the time of her delivery is nigh, so were His people in His sight (through the ages of the Old Dispensation). They had conceived and were in pain; but all they brought forth is wind as it were, that is typical deliverers none of whom had wrought true salvation in the earth and therefore here characterized as wind (vss. 16-18).

Christenen in de Antieke Wereld (Christians in the Ancient World) by Dr. A. Sizoo. Published by J.H. Kok N.V., Kampen, the Netherlands. Price f 7.50. 

The reply concerns Kok’s use of my explanation of Art. 31 of the Church Order. In the Reformed Guardian for Feb. 12, 1954, Kok writes and I quote: 

In a purported church news item in Concordia, Feb. 25, 1954, pages 7 and 8, one finds such a concoction of inaccuracies, omissions, and downright lies concerning the recent history of our Protestant Reformed congregation in Lynden, Washington, that it is simply amazing that anyone, let alone a writer in a religious paper, dares to break out in print in such a fashion.

For the present I have no time to reply to your articles in the Reformed Journal. But I ask of you, in all fairness, to do either of two things:  1. Insert in all your articles N.N. instead of using my name. I cannot recognize my theology in your presentation of it. You are literally fighting against windmills.