Vol 32 Issue 07

Dear Rev. Hoeksema: 

“Would You Dare to Pray Thus?” We appreciate deeply the interest the readers of this department have and are showing respecting what we have to say in it. This interest is evidenced both in the letters we receive and in the clippings, etc., sent to us asking for our comment. That all the material does not find a place in our department is, of course, left to our judgment. I trust that my refusal to put everything I receive in this department will not discourage those who send it. 

The church order speaks of the duties of the elders in more than one place. In the sixteenth article it is stated that their task is, together with the minister of the Word, to exercise church discipline and to see to it that everything is done decently and in good order. To this is added in the twenty-third article that elders are called upon to exercise supervision or oversight over their fellow officebearers, the ministers and deacons, and to properly engage in the work of family visitation.

As must be obvious to the reader, the above caption refers to the well-known and much discussed article 31 of our church order. Therefore the question whether this particular article should be revised naturally falls under the much broader question of the revision of the entire church order. This matter was before our synod in 1950, occasioned by a letter addressed to our synod by the synod of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, in which cooperation was sought in the study of a possible revision of the church order, and grounds were adduced for the necessity of such a...

Augustine (died in the year 430)) the greatest theological authority of the Latin church, at first referred the words, “On this rock I will build my church,” to the person of Peter, but afterward expressly retracted this interpretation, and considered the petra (rock, H.V.) to be Christ, on the ground of a distinction between petra(upon this rock) and Petrus (thou art Peter); a distinction which Jerome also makes, though with the intimation that it is not properly applicable to the Hebrew and Syriac Cephas. “I have somewhere said of St.

Saturday or Sunday?  That is not the problem we propose to discuss at this time.  However, it must be conceded that even that matter must be settled in His fear. We may not arbitrarily chose the one day or the other for our Sabbath worship. It is not a matter of individual choice. It is not for us to decide which day we would like to set aside for our Sabbath worship. It is a matter of determining in His Fear what day God has chosen for us to observe.  All things must be done in His fear. 

We will now begin our expository observations on the next section of the first Chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians, which we have been considering. We call attention to the verses 18-25.  Before we quote this passage in part we feel we ought to make a few introductory observations concerning this part of Chapter 1, the verses 18-25. We shall attend to the following: 

8. And I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle shrubs that were in a deep place and behind him (there were) horses red, bay, and white.

Chapter Three: The Implications of the Fourth Petition Secondly, having been translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, he seeks the kingdom of God, the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He knows that God is not ashamed to be called his God: for He has prepared for him a city, the heavenly city, that has foundations. Here he knows he lies in the midst of death. And in the midst of death he eats his bread. But he looks forward to the glory of his risen and exalted Lord, the heavenly...

The Apostates of 1953 and the Three Points By Rev. Herman Hoeksema