Vol 31 Issue 21

The Reformed Faith in Conflict 

“The Elders shall be chosen by the judgment of the Consistory and the Deacons according to the regulations for that purpose established by the Consistory.

4) The condition unto salvation which God chose is, in the first place, the act of faith, which, according to the Arminians, “from its very nature is undeserving.” Notice that all stress is here laid upon the conscious activity of faith, that is, the act of believing, and that this act of believing, even though admittedly undeserving, is nevertheless conceived of as a meritorious work. With the act of faith, moreover, belongs, in the second place, the “incomplete obedience of faith” as a condition of salvation.

The danger of misleading and tempting our children by having graven images of some false god in our homes seems quite remote in this day and age.  We live in an age of “enlightenment!”  Man has “progressed” so far in education and has learned so much concerning the laws of God in creation that he no longer puts his trust in idols of wood and stone. He has learned that gods made by the skill and workmanship of man are harmless to the man who made them. 

We ended our last Article with a question. It was the question concerning the two Scripture passages which are quoted in Matthew 19:4-8.

As was stated, in treating this subject, I arranged my material under the following four points: The Covenant of Sinai: (1) Its Character; (2) Its Promises; (3) Its Members; (4) Its Waxing Old and Vanishing Away and the Reasons Thereof. 

Chapter 1: The Idea of the Kingdom of God 

It is, not surprising that in the Netherlands, particularly in the Reformed Churches there, interest is shown in the recent controversy in our churches and in the schism that was caused in them by those that departed from the Protestant Reformed truth.  In fact, in the old country they, i.e. the Reformed Churches, passed through a phase of their history recently that is much similar to what our Protestant Reformed Churches passed through, both from a doctrinal and church political point of view. 

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God regineth!” Isaiah 52:7